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I use Wireshark x64 daily in my work. Suddenly today, it refuses to open.
- When I doubleclick a
pcap
(orpcapng
) file, Windows tells me the file I tried to click was not found. - When I try to start Wireshark through the start screen, nothing happens.
- When I try to start Wireshark through Launchy, nothing happens.
- When I try to double click the
Wireshark.exe
in theProgram Files\Wireshark
folder, it claims that the file can not be found...(!) - When I open a cmd prompt, go to the same folder and type in wireshark or Wireshark.exe, I get this:
D:\Program Files\Wireshark>wireshark The system cannot find the file D:\Program Files\Wireshark\Wireshark.exe.
I have tried to run process monitor to see if anything related happens, but I have not been able to see anything. At least nothing that contains the path of Wireshark, the process name etc.
I have checked the registry according to several KB articles - there is nothing non-default handling .exe files.
The other .exe-files in the same folder work as expected.
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Wireshark (latest version) on the system - this changed nothing.
I have tried "running as admin" - same results as before.
This freaks me out and I start worrying about viruses etc. I did an update of Windows Defender and then a full scan. It found nothing, so in theory I am clean.
Does anyone have any ideas how to troubleshoot this? I use Wireshark quite a bit so it would be great to figure it out - it worked perfectly for the past year or so before this started happening suddenly today.
EDIT: After tons of installing and uninstalling (to same place, to different places), I have made a simple yet strange discovery:
If I rename or make a copy of Wireshark.exe, called anything but Wireshark, it runs!
So there is no reason to think there is anything wrong with Wireshark itself.
So is something sitting in mah' Windows looking at the file names of executables that are to be run, and causing an error? I like that I can start Wireshark, but I am horrified at what this might actually mean.
EDIT 2: As per Ramhound's suggestion, I tried running in safe mode. Same thing happens then - when I try starting the .exe file by double clicking it, it claims it can't be found. If I copy it to another name and run it, it works.
Also, I have gotten updated versions of both SpyBot and Kaspersky online to do full scans on the system, and they have discovered nothing.
This the only program that cannot run? Try running it in
Safe Mode
see what happens. – Ramhound – 2014-04-22T10:58:26.927This is the only program I've discovered so far. I am not aware of anything else going wrong on the system. I will try safe mode once I escape from work, and see if that makes a difference, thank you. :) – Rune Jacobsen – 2014-04-22T11:00:36.743