Programs/Shortcts will not open

MoOnKat

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Mar 22, 2013
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Hello, for some reason none of my shortcuts/programms installed on my pc will open. I double click them and the cursor just loads for a while and then it stops. Any ideas on what could be causing this problem?
Only little minor things will open such at Notepad etc.
Internet won't.
 

of the way

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Feb 15, 2010
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One possibility would be a virus. Or it would be possible for some of your programs to not work well together. Have you tried restarting your computer? Do you know how to get into safe mode?
 


Depends on how decent the shop is - a lot of them like to charge as much as they think they can get away with.

You've tried rebooting the computer, right?
 

of the way

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Feb 15, 2010
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If you hold F8 while restarting your computer, you should be able to find an option to start in safe mode. Safe mode essentially gets Windows to start with only the things necessary to have Windows run. It's a good place to go to see if some programs are doing bad things to your computer.
Microsoft's safe mode page. For further reading if you choose to go that route.
 

MoOnKat

Honorable
Mar 22, 2013
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Tried running safe mode and everything seems to work fine, except for the screen resoloution which has gone ridicoulosly small:lol:
Would this mean there is definetly a particular programme causing harm possibly?
 

of the way

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Feb 15, 2010
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That would be my guess. Did you recently install any software or update any drivers?

Here is what I would do:
Start your computer normally. Check if problem persists.
If so, try opening a program by finding the .exe, instead of using shortcut. If you right click on a shortcut and select properties, there will be a 'target' field that shows you where the .exe should be.
If problem still persists, I would run some anti-malware tools. AVG, Spybot Search and Destroy, Malwarebytes...
If problem still persists, I would run CCleaner. There is a 'startup' tool that shows you what loads with Windows, and it allows you to remove them. I would disable anything that seems suspicious. Don't delete them so that you can enable them if it turns out to be something you need. Then restart your computer.
If problem still persists, I would personally suggest reinstalling Windows, but if you don't want to do that, you could try just reinstalling some of the programs.