Unable to open programs after system restore

Azurex

Honorable
Jul 30, 2012
26
0
10,530
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. Although, I have attempted to undo the system restore, but it only fails.

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, for reference.
 
Solution
When you perform a System Restore, any applications which you installed after that particular restore date have to be re-installed, since System Restore also restores the Registry as it was at that date and time.

So even though those applications' shortcuts and their program folders may still be there, they won't actually run until you re-install them to restore their Registry entries.
When you perform a System Restore, any applications which you installed after that particular restore date have to be re-installed, since System Restore also restores the Registry as it was at that date and time.

So even though those applications' shortcuts and their program folders may still be there, they won't actually run until you re-install them to restore their Registry entries.
 
Solution