Games refuse to run properly with Win 7 PRO x64

[Grotok]

Hi,

This is driving me insane. I have Win 7 Pro x64. Everything was running fine for months, then all the sudden several of my games won't run properly. When I double-click on the game icon, nothing happen. If I check the Task Manager, there's absolutely nothing in the APPLICATIONS tab. However, the execute file IS in the PROCESSES tab. It's just sitting there and doing nothing, barely using any RAM.

Games that are affected so far:

Diablo
Diablo 2 +expansion
Neverwinter 1 +expansions
Fallout 2 (GOG)
Warcraft 3+ +expansion


Some games that aren't affected:
Fallout 1 (GOG)
Fallout Tactics (GOG)
Heroine's Quest
Quest For Glory 2 VGA
Neverwinter Nights 2
SWKoTOR1
Torchlight


Stuff I tried:

With Diablo 2, if I run the game.exe instead of diablo2.exe, the game will run properly. Same with NWN1: nwnmain.exe instead of nwn.exe. However, running fallout2.exe instead of goglauncher.exe doesn't solve the problem.


Others:

Updated all drivers, no overclocking. Tried to disable and even uninstall AVAST, doesn't solve anything. Tried a System Restore to a week ago, doesn't solve anything.

Desperately need help. Thank you in advance.

 

[AstaLaVista]

perhaps malware or viruses got to them somehow? more so because you said they were working fine before.

Have you tried uninstalling and installing the games again? at least those that seem not to change when you use the other .exe? To those that do make a change when switching the .exe, I would suggest just making a shortcut for it if you don't want to go through the hassle of uninstalling and installing again.

Avast did a number on me the other day, I think it went false-positive happy-go-lucky crazy but I don't know enough about it.

 

[Grotok]

Thank you for the reply AstaLaVista.

I reinstalleed some of the games, but no luck. I grudgingly decided to reinstall Windows 7 altogether. Everything seem OK so far. Games are running alright.

I suspected this mess was caused by a Windows Update that crashed a while back. Some files might have gotten corrupted or something. Or a software update that came with malware. I'll probably never know.

Thank you again for your time.

 

[AstaLaVista]

As I get older I have learn to choose my battles carefully but, more than anything... not to question the win as I used to do before