Windows XP can't download EXE files

In the event that spyware is not at the root of your problem, you may wish to check if your hard drive is suffering from weak bits or surface wear.  This is best done by running your hard drive manufacturer's specific utility (download from their web site), and if you're lucky, you may be able to get the drive replaced under warranty.  Only problem will be to save your data beforehand.

Btw, you mention running Norton but no mention of getting the definition files at least once a week (wether through LiveUpdate or manually downloaded).

Same with Nod32 - are you downloading and installing the updates?  Download them to another PC, copy to a CD and install to the troubled PC.

All this reloading of XP overtop will not address a spyware-riddled registry.  Nor a trojan-infected one.  These puppies know how to hide from detection.  Morphing is not an uncommon activity of late, either.

Best of luck!
Ted

Hi riclm:

I agree with tedsky that this could be a "spyware" issue, but it seems unlikely that it would immediately continue after a "fresh" install.  No definite answers follow, just additional questions/suggestions:

When you did the "fresh" install, did you delete/recreate the partition, and format during the install?  If not, it's possible something nasty was left behind.

Have you checked the hard drive for errors, either with a diagnostic utility from the drive's manufacturer, or by running 'chkdsk /r' from a command prompt, and scheduling it to run on the next reboot?  It's a stretch, but at least it would help to eliminate hardware issues.

Can you setup another network connection with a different ISP to rule that out, even if it's dialup?  Another long-shot, but.

If you attempt another clean install, install your virus and spyware software before doing anything over the net.

NEWS!
Tedsky and Renots

I wrote a shortened story of my case other wise it would have been too long.

I don't think it can be spyware, since I formatted my HD and lost everything.

Answering questions:
- Norton: Yes I was aware of the Live Update and I had the last update
- Nod32: Following their recommendations, I updated right after the installation.
- Spyware: I am aware of spywares and I had Ad-aware software.

I did have KazaaLite, which is supposedly spyware free. But I know that Kazaa and this type of programs are full of spywares, like Gator etc.
I did also have Babylon Translator.
The program that I use to connect my cable connection is BPA Login.

- XP Installations: I have done installations over the current Windows XP, selecting the option Repair and on another time selecting Fresh.
- Partitions: I tried partioaning my HD (40 GB) into 2 units, so I could leave Windows in one and format it. I actually tried to boot with a DOS floppy to deltree Windows, but I couldn't because my HD was NTFS. Partigion Magic screwed my HD and my data was inaccessible, so I used their diskettes, created during the installation, and I reformatted my HD and created 2 partitions:
1. A 3.9 GB partition, NTFS. To place Windows XP there
2. The rest on a FAT32 partition. For my files and programs, including Program Files.

BTW, I formatted with Partition Magic, but still Windows XP installation asked me to format the NTFS unit so I chose Yes. First I chose Quick NTFS, the second time I chose normal NTFS.

I did the chkdsk and scheduled it. The screen shifted too fast in the end, but I dont think that there were any errors, otherwise it would have warned me.


AN INTRIGUING THING
After reading your messages and doing the chkdsk I again formatted my HD and reinstalled XP.
The problem persisted.
BUT I connected with a Dial Up connection and IT ACTUALLY DOWNLOADED EXE FILES.
I downloaded ICQ Lite, Winamp and SpyBot.
Then I disconnected the Dial Up and connected BPA Login (cable internet).
The sites windows were still open. So I tried downloading the EXE files AND THEY DIDN'T COME.
And I reset my puter and tried again with cable... didn't work.

So it makes us suspect of the Network: card, drivers, softwares.. whateva.

FURTHER TESTING
I asked friend on ICQ to send me non-exe files.
- One sent an MP3, that came through.
- The other sent a PSD
- Then this same person tried sending me NOTEPAD.EXE and it didn't come through.

MORE
I scanned my PC with Spy Bot and it actually found some rubbish around. I was quite surprised, cos my installation was just fresh. But didn't change anything anyway.

Now I have ICQ Lite, first time using it (I used Pro). I had problems like I was having before:
could see people online, but msgs weren't sent. and then it disconnected itself. than reconnected and still i couldn't send msgs.
Now it's been working for a couple of hours (I'm on cable).
But that's whay happened before. It worked sometimes, but some other it just didn't. Just like moods of a pregnant woman.
And it connected fine with Dial up.


Well at list we have given one step forward testing it with Dial Up, but still I have no clue on how to fix it. And I need to have it fixed! I just can't have XP hindering EXE downloads.

So, any other ideas?

PS: I'm new to experts-exchange. Should I press this green Accept button?

NO - Don't accept till your problem is resolved or you fix yourself.
Could they possibly be Java Links?
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=281679
You Cannot Open New Internet Explorer Window or Nothing Happens After You Click a Link

 Otherwise might try a EXE fix
____________Copy below here and paste to a .reg file named exefix.reg____ Yes leave a blank line at bottom
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe]
@="exefile"
"Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile]
@="Application"
"EditFlags"=hex:38,07,00,00
"TileInfo"="prop:FileDescription;Company;FileVersion"
"InfoTip"="prop:FileDescription;Company;FileVersion;Create;Size"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\DefaultIcon]
@="%1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open]
"EditFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\DropHandler]
@="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\PEAnalyser]
@="{09A63660-16F9-11d0-B1DF-004F56001CA7}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\PifProps]
@="{86F19A00-42A0-1069-A2E9-08002B30309D}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ShimLayer Property Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"

Here's a few Microsoft Knowledge Base articles I found that may be your problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=816037
You Cannot Download Files from an FTP Server

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=323308
Internet Explorer File Downloads Over SSL Do Not Work with the "No-Cache" Header

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=319032
An Error Message Occurs If You Click "Save Target As" for a Link

Here's a suggestion that (unfortunately) was an oversight on my part, sprry ...

<Start>
<Outlook Express>
<Tools>
<Options>
<Security>
<Uncheck> this box:
"Do Not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus"

Assuming that an anti-virus program is in place, updated, and recent definitions applied, this would be a safe choice to make.

This option got toggled on with a recent (automated Windows) Update of IE 6.

May or may not be the issue, but worth checking.
Ted

lol tedsky
We all looking for the harder things that make that happen. Be funny if that was it. I totally forgot about that and i just made a little exe to set options in outlook for someone on multiple PC's. That's included.

(Veegertx, only mentioned it because several clients have asked me over the past several months why they couldn't view attachments, where they could clearly do so before (they updated IE6) - thought MS might have modified more OS params than they'd let on ;)

Yes I here you, I noticed when that happened and wondered what I had done. Actually thats the safest way nowadays to block attachements till you scan for viruses and such. But I don't auto download email I just have the headers without preview pane.
If thats it you definitely deserve the points.

Good point, to turn off "preview pane".
We get lax with AV software in place, I believe ;)

devoted2christ: Thank you. It solved my problem.

Veegertx: I did that registry thing. Didn't change anything. And that article in MS KB wasn't really my problem, because the error also happened with Opera and Netscape and file transfers in ICQ

LeeTutor: thank you for your suggestions. These problems were similar, but not exactly what was happening here.

Tedsky: I don't know why you mentioned OE. I haven't mentioned it. I sayd that Outlook (non-Express) showed the download progress of my emails, reached 100% but the emails didn't show up on my screen. Then it tried again and I got an error from my pop3.
And it wasn't my major problem. I've tested with Netscape, Opera, IE, ICQ: the prob wasn't related to IE or OE, was happening to anything that tried downloading an EXE

Veedertx and Tedsky: the prob with Outlook wasn't about opening blocked attachments. It just didn't download my emails properly, with our without attachments. And it happened randomly.

I haven't reinstalled Office XP yet, but I will.

Here's the history of my last phase of troubleshooting:

after every installation of windows, i insert my motherboard's CD and install drivers for:
- network (SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter)
- monitor (Plug and Play Monitor on SiS 650_651_M650_740)
- sound card (C-Media)

They're all on board.
My modem ain't.

I tried that registry thing suggested and reset.

on the CABLE connection:
- winamp: downloaded 570kb and stopped
- 174KB file (ICQ) EXE from Sweden: 150 KB and stopped.
- winamp: cancelled and retried. nothing
- Sweden: resent, clicked resume, nothing transferred
- icqpro: download didn't progress
- Zip file from Sweden: 475KB came smoothly
- EXE file from Sweden: 420KB exe file. not even a bit came through
- Bosnian streaming radio: worked fine. horrible music though
- windows update: scanned. didn't download anything
- trillian 0.74: using installwizard. downloaded about 30% then stopped.
- Tried updating MSN: didn't download

Network driver
Went to the US Elite Group site and downloaded

Details:
Windows 9x/Me/NT4.0/2000/XP
SiS PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter Driver
(http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/driver/lan/sis900_116.zip)

From 22/08/2002.

Being a ZIP it DOWNLOADED SMOOTHLY again in 3 secs. (235KB)

More steps:
- Deleted Netowrk Driver in Drive Manager
- Reset puter and let XP auto-reinstall it (I wonder if XP just reuses the drivers from my

motherboard's CD, because it doesn't ask me for XP's CD. I think it uses the files from my

motherboard because it created Local Area Network 2, even having deleted the network

device, that killed the Local Area Netork #1.)
- Tried downloading ICQ Pro. Didn't work
- Tried updating MSN: didn't download
- Uninstalled Network device
- Reinstalled it with Add New Hardware
- Went to Device Manager and updated the driver with the driver downloaded from Elite Group
- It now installed Local Area Netowork 3 (LAN 1 and 2 were the previous, they're not

installed)

HEY!!! IT WORKED!!! IT WORKED!!
I just downloaded ICQ Pro in 8 secs!!! With 512KB/s!!!

Further downloading tests:
- Trillian: was downloading at 55KB/s and stopped in the middle. I cancelled and restarted.

It downloaded in 5 secs on 500 KB/s
- Google Bar: worked
- Adaware: 3 sec, 501KB/s
- Nod32: 12 sec, 520KB/s
- zip file: 6 sec, 102KB/s
- zip file: 6 sec, 92.8 KB/s
- BPFTP: 1 min 9 sec, 46.8 KB/s
- Babylon Translator: 4 sec, 507 KB/s
- Eng - Portuguese glossary: 1.1 min, 65.9 KB/s
- Portuguese - Eng glossary: 47 sec, 66.9 KB/s
- Eng - Spanish glossary: 1.10 min, 66.5 KB/s
- Spanish - Eng glossary: 1.11 min, 67.4 KB/s
- Eng - Italian glossary: 1 min, 65.9 KB/s
- Italian - Eng glossary: 35 sec, 66.2 KB/s
- ICQ File Transfer: 29 sec, 5.2 KB/s (notepad.exe)

WELL, I reckon it's enough testing! It's denifetly working
I'll still restart my PC to test

Download test:
- Opera 7.11: worked!
- Windows update: WORKED!

well, that's it.
Problem solved.
The Dial Up test was crucial.
Case closed!

Ok good thing, award the points to (devoted2christ: Thank you. It solved my problem)
You mentioned sticking one of those Mobo disks in, I never do that cause mostly all the drivers are usually ancient compared to XP. After installing a new Aopen Mobo with Athalon 2500+ i installed the drivers off that disk and had trouble for a week, re-format let XP set everything up then went to device manager and it had 1 yellow ? mark so installed driver for the modem, no problems. Guess necessary sometimes but for the most part XP takes care of everything. Much better off than the Win95 days.

Good deal then. I figured it was the drivers, as there really is no option for not downloading certain files. I can't really say for sure WHY it did it, but sometimes wrong drivers do unforeseen things. Perhaps it was clogging it all up with junk packets, perhaps it just "gave up" after a certain time period. Either way, drivers are always the first thing to check. Always make sure they're updated, especially with WinXP, as it is really picky about the drivers you use. And network/modem drivers are obviously the most important to keep updated!

Anyway, good to hear you got it working! :)

Hello riclm,

You were saying,
"Tedsky: I don't know why you mentioned OE. I haven't mentioned it."

Please have a second look at what I said -following- the OE stuff ...
"thought MS might have modified more OS params than they'd let on ;) "

If you know anything about how MicroSoft works (in mysterious ways), you'll understand where that follow-up comment came from.

Hope that clears the air somewhat,
Ted