Windows 7: Self extracting .exes not installing

First of all, greetings. I've been surfing the forums for quite some time now but never saw the reason to make an account here. Until now that is...



I installed the SP1 pack a couple of days ago and today I noticed a problem that's very annoying:
When trying to install the Firefox 4 beta, the self extracting archive (Firefox Setup 4.0 Beta 12.exe) won't install. It would extract the archive into the temp folder, but the setup won't activate. I looked into my C:\Users\Dawn\AppData\Local\Temp folder while the archive was extracting, and after finishing, the temp folder just auto-deleted.

I experimented with other self extracting .exe files and the behavior is identical.

Any ideas why this might be? Does it have any link to the prior installation of the SP1?
My version of Windows 7 x64 is genuine, with no wat removers or that kind of stuff.

Hello Hellriser, and welcome to Seven Forums.

As a test, extract the files to a folder on your Desktop instead. Next run the setup.exe file from within the extracted files to see if it will install now.

You should be able to just run the Firefox Setup 4.0 Beta 12.exe to start installing it. No need for you to extract anything from it.

Right click on it, and click on Run as administrator to see if that may allow it to install afterwards.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I forgot to mention that I tried this, and it works perfectly. I have no other issues with .exes of any kind, just the ones that selfextract in the temp folder prior to installing (like the firefox installation package).

See if what I added about "Run as administrator" to my post above may be able to help.

I have tried all the "basic" solutions, from running as admin to checking the registry files to scanning for viruses and malware, checking if the temp folder was read-only, disabling windows defender and so on. None of them seem to work, I thoroughly searched with Google for a solution but it seems that no one encountered this problem in Windows 7. I have no idea what to do instead of manually extracting then installing the packages or a fresh reinstall of my OS, which I don't want to make any time sooner.

Any new ideas would be appreciated.

You could try downloading and merging the EXE option in the tutorial below to see if it may be able to help after a restart if it's a issue with associations or registry. It restores all of the default associations and registry entries for the exe file extension.

Default File Type Associations - Restore

If not, then as a test, create a new administrator account to see if it does the same while logged in it.

Sorry if it's a dumb question, but where's that downloading and merging EXE tutorial you mentioned?

LOL, sorry. I forgot to add the link. It's been added above.

Tried both suggestions: resetting the EXE file association didn't do anything and the EXE behaves the same in a new admin account I created. So I'm back to square 1 >.<

If this hasn't started to long ago, then you could do a system restore using a restore point (if available) dated before this started to hopefully fix it.

If not, then a repair install should be able to fix this without losing anything.