Solved MS Paint missing - need to find it

[Tharwatime]

I shut down my computer as normal, everything was working fine, including MS Paint. On booting an hour or so later MS Paint had vanished - not in Accessories, the Taskbar, or in the program folders. Can someone please advise:
1 What might have happened;
2 How I can find the missing program; and
3 Is is possible to download a clean version of MS Paint from a reputable website? If so, which one? TIA

 

[ethel]

Hi Tharwatime, System Restore may be able to restore ms paint from the link below.




System Restore

 

[torchwood]

Hi Tharwatime,

link for download,

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/8a779cf7-3362-4948-a65e-e3a78c86f9a8/download-paint

NO program should just dissappear!

run an AV scan just to be on the safe side, and back that up with a Malwarbytes scan.

Roy

 

[MSClin]

Hi Tharwatime,

what you was doing before shutting down your PC? For the missing Paint, System Restore is the best option, don't download Paint or any MS program in case of disappear. If you have restore point before this happened, use it.

 

[Layback Bear]

Do you have another program that does what Windows 7 Paint does?

If you do it could be set as Default instead of 'Paint'.
Such a program might of removed the link to Windows 7 Paint.

I also agree with Roy. I would verify that the system is NOT infected.
I would do this first. A Restore Point that is infected will not be of help.

Jack

 

[georgeks]

So Win+R>mspaint does not work?

 

[mjf]

You may have done something without noticing.
Search C: for mspaint.exe. The copy normally used should live in C\windows\system32 but on my PCs there is also a copy in
C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-mspaint_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_ea12784c0842bfc1

If it was me I'd want to know what happened and I'd definitely be checking for malware just in case.
Regardless I'd do a system image restore provided you have made system images. You could try a straight system restore as suggested if you don't have any signs of malware.

 

[Tharwatime]

Thanks for the above advice. I have very high firewall and AV protection, and have run an AV, nothing.

I was looking at images that I had last accessed in MS Paint, and I was amazed to see MS Paint open. I saved the screen shot below in MS Paint. This shows that the program is not where it should be but the property window shows that it is. I cannot understand this!

I have another program, IrfanView, that can be used for images.

 

[ethel]

Hi Everybody, In my pc mspaint is located under C:/Windows, SystemWOW64, have to scroll down a fair

way and it just says mspaint.

 

[torchwood]

That right hand side screenshot is showing the properties of the >>shortcut<<
NOT paint in its own right, its distinguished by the shortcut arrow-up

silly question have your searched for mspaint.exe

NOTE
left hand screenshot your looking in the wrong place
mspaint is way down from there and has APPLICATION as its description type, not file folder


Roy

 

[Tharwatime]

Thanks, i'm aware of the aspects of the shortcut. Once I put the shortcut back it worked. I was searching for Paint*.* as in
c:\>dir paint*.* /s
I also searched from the start button. It does not assist that the program is called Paint and the EXE file is mspaint.exe. I was also looking for a Paint folder, and for some reason did not envisage mspaint.exe. No matter, that part is sorted.

I now have the Paint icon on the taskbar and on the desktop. The only step missing is to have Paint in the Accessories folder. Can someone advise how this is done?

It would assist if the default font size was bigger and blacker. Had that been so, or if screens could be zoomed, then I would have seen the \ in the command line on the right side of the screen shot.

 

[mjf]

I was also looking for a Paint folder, and for some reason did not envisage mspaint.exe.

You were told to search for mspaint.exe in post #7.

 

[Tharwatime]

My post 11 advice that I was searching for paint*.* refers to prior to post seven. Paint is back on the accessories list. But it's odd - why should Paint just vanish from three places: taskbar, accessories and desktop?