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#1
Cannot run most programs - profapi.dll error
I am getting the following error message whenever I try to run most programs (in this example, Chrome).
C:\Windows\system32\profapi.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error...
This started with me using Windows as normal, when suddenly I couldn't start any new programs - they just closed as soon as I opened them. I thought a simple restart would fix it, and boy, was I wrong. As soon as I restarted, the Windows (something) shell stopped responding, and so did Windows Explorer. My icons and taskbar were not appearing, and manually starting explorer.exe did not help at all, it just stopped responding as soon as I did so. I decided to run "sfc /scannow" to see if it would fix the problem. It found errors, but said it was not able to fix them. I decided to run "chkdsk /r" next, as it seemed the most logical option, and it found a TON of errors (literally hundreds or even thousands). It fixed them and I restarted Windows. Explorer.exe and the Windows (sth.) shell seemed to run fine, so I tried running a few programs. All of them started throwing up this error. I next booted my W7 CD and ran system repair, restoring my system to an earlier restore point (conveniently from 3 PM the previous day, right before this problem started appearing - I don't know how it got there). That fixed nothing. Thought the next logical thing would be to copy over profapi.dll from a computer that is working correctly. I did so, and the files seem to be identical - neither is damaged or corrupt or abnormal in any way - this means the problem is not with the files. I am having this problem still until now, and have run out of ideas. I decided to run "sfc /scannow" once again, so here's the log (it was too large to attach, and trying to paste it anywhere froze my PC or said it was too big, so here's a MF link):
CBS.log
tl;dr: Getting the error in the picture, even though the file itself is completely fine.