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#1
Can't execute programs after login but after safemode reboot is OK?
I'm having a really bizarre problem where I've been trying to solve for over a week without much success.
Basically when I login to my compute, I can't execute any programs and I've noticed none of my startup programs are running.
But when I go into Safe mode, then reboot normally and login again everything seems to work as normal?
Could it be a virus reactivating itself or Windows trying to install something in stealth that is messing things up? Or something more innocent at work here?
To give you some background first: I haven't used my computer in over a year because I was travelling a lot. But the computer was running efficiently before and when I turned it on again it was working fine.
I've been using Windows since 3.1 so I consider myself above average when it comes to dealing with Windows issues.
I was using Kaspersky Pure before but it obviously expired so I installed Kaspersky Internet Security with a new subscription code.
I have not run any Windows Update yet on the machine as I don't want add more variables to the situation whilst I'm trying to solve this.
The things I've tried (and failed)
Restore from older disk image backups.
Run HW diagnostics Memory, HDD
Trawled through the Registry for odd entries
Scanned the computer multiple times for virus, rootkits
Ran Gmer
Cleaned up registry via CCleaner
Ran Chkdsk
Ran Autoruns and did a spring clean
I'm convinced it's a s/w issue because it runs normally when I do a normal boot after a Safemode login/exit.
What could it be doing during this normal boot and the next one that is causing this issue?
The only thing left for me to try is
1) Restore File associations to their default (Doubt this fixes anything)
2) Uninstall Kaspersky (I've never had any problems with them all these years I've been using them)
3) Restore to a really really old backup
4) Reinstall Windows.
Any suggestions other than the 4 would be greatly appreciated!