application failed to initialize properly

This is my first time using this site and I'm not certain I've used it correctly with regard to accepting the solutions.  I tried the solutions posed by both commenters, checking for viruses and using msconfig to remove recquard.exe from start-up.  The 2nd solution took care of the recguard problem by taking it off the table, but the original problem of overcoming the initialization error on the CDROM setup.exe file remains.  So I got part of the way there but not all the way to the most immediately critical part of the problem. In other words, my problem is not really resolved yet and further suggestions are needed to deal with whatever is causing the error message.  Although only executables have been affected I don't see any evidence that a virus is at work.  MY guess is that something is preventing the programs in question from accessing some critical .dll.  So if I misled you that my problem is solved, please bear with me until I get used to the system here and clearly understand all the terms and procedures.

Mike

Try the registry fix:

Copy to notepad and save the file with a REG extension.

Double click on it and select merge.

REGEDIT4

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

Good luck,

Zee

A suggestion: don't include several questions in one post.

Zee

Thanks Zee,

Lots of open parameters and wildcards - ought to open up pretty much anything.  I won't be able to find out if it works until this evening. Will let you know.

Mike

msherman51,

in case that you still having problems in executing any exe files, try the following:

Registry shell spawning executes the malware whenever a user opens files with EXE, PIF, COM, BAT, or HTA extensions. The following procedures should restore the registry to its original settings.

Click Start>Run.
In the Open input box, type:
command /c copy %Windows%\regedit.exe regedit.com | regedit.com
Press Enter.
In the left panel, double-click the following:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT>exefile>shell>open>command
In the right panel, locate the registry entry:
Default
Check whether its value is the path and filename of the malware file.
If the value is the malware file, right-click Default and select Modify to change its value.
In the Value data input box, delete the existing value and type the default value:
"%1"%*
Close Registry Editor.
Click Start>Run, then type:
command /c del regedit.com
Press Enter.


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if that works, it means that it is yaha virus. Download yaha cleaning tool from antivirus site (Symantec for example and scan your computer)

I inspected the registry at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT>exefile>shell>open>command  and found the value to be "%1"%*
, so there did not seem to be any reason to create a reg file to merge.

I updated my Norton virus definitions and scanned the entire hard drive and did not find Yaha or any other virus.  For good measure I downloaded the Yaha removal tool and tried to run it but it would not run.

At this point I still have the original problem without a clue about what to do next.  The only good news is that I called Verizon to see if they could help me navigate around their installation disk (where setup.exe. still fails to initialize) to the install files I needed, only to be told that I could install the dsl modem without needing anything from that disk!  Good old vanilla XP has enough of the right driver files to autodetect whatever it needs to get the modem up and running. Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

So is my problem now moot?  I don't know that either.

Mike

More comment:  On Dogpile I found a reference to the following Knowledge Base article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q305/6/80.asp&NoWebContent=1  .  

Interestingly I did not find this article when I searched the knowledge base directly for the error code.  The article, which is directed to SQL server instalation, states that the error is a low-level I/O and is often associated with CDROM failure, paging problems, and/or a hardware problem. It recommends running chkdsk and checking memory allocated to paging.  So I'm going to follow that track too.  Will report back on results.

Mike