Unable to open programs after system restore

Hi there.

Last night, I foolishly forgot to disable automatic updates and when I woke up to use my computer in the morning, alas, a magnitude of drivers suddenly stopped working. I quickly turned to a system restore, but that's when things somehow got worse.

Now, when I boot up my machine, it can launch any base application included in Windows, such as Task Manager, Calculator, Explorer, etc. However, if I try to open any application such as Firefox or Skype, the process will appear briefly in the 'processes' tab in Task Manager, and then quickly disappear.

Thankfully, all my drivers appear to work as they used to, but I simply can't run any applications other than pre-packaged Windows programs.

I'm quite positive I don't have a virus. I fear that it may be a registry corruption, in which case I do not have the available discs to perform a system repair. I only have my OEM disc.

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Have you tired to boot into Safe Mode, then undo the last restore?

johnsmith45jock said:

Have you tired to boot into Safe Mode, then undo the last restore?

I have tried that, however I was notified upon reboot that the restore had failed.
I've found my earliest system restore point from last month, so I'll give that a shot quickly.

MilesAhead said:

How many restore points are available?

If you type
path

in command prompt what is shown?

There's not too many restore points available. Four, and I've tried them all.
When I type Path, I get this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Winston>path
PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\PROGRAM FILES (X8
6)\AMD APP\BIN\X86_64;C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\AMD APP\BIN\X86;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32
;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WBEM;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINDOWSPOWERSHELL\V1.0\
;C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\SAMSUNG\SAMSUNG PC STUDIO 3\;D:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\SAMS
UNG\SAMSUNG PC STUDIO 3;C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\ATI TECHNOLOGIES\ATI.ACE\CORE-STA
TIC;C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\SMART PROJECTS\ISOBUSTER;D:\PROGRAM FILES\ATI TECHNOL
OGIES\ATI.ACE\CORE-STATIC;C:\PROGRAM FILES\COMMON FILES\AUTODESK SHARED\;C:\MING
W\BIN;C:\USERS\WINSTON\APPDATA\LOCAL\SMARTBAR\APPLICATION\;C:\Windows\SYSTEM32;C
:\Windows;C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WBEM;C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINDOWSPOWERSHELL\V1.0\;C
:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\QUICKTIME\QTSYSTEM\;;C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth So
ftware\;C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth Software\syswow64;C:\Program Files\Br
oadcom\WHL\;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\WHL\syswow64;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\WHL
\SysWow64\;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\WHL\SysWow64\syswow64;C:\Program Files (x86
)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\Tools\WinNT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Vi
sual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Co
mmon\Tools;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\bin

C:\Users\Winston>