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syssolutFlag for United States of America

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Nothing will open becuase Rundll32,exe is missing

I am running Win XP Home.   After running Malwarebytes and anti-virus, a number of things including Control Panel and command prompt will not open because an error message says the C:\windows\system32\rundll32.exe is missing.   I ran recovery console to "expand" rundll.exe but it says that file cannot be created.   I copied the Rundll32.exe from another running computer with XP and pasted into computer with issue but that did not help.   DO I have to run a repair on this HP computer on the recovery side as my only solution?
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Craig Bowman
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unless that is the steps you already took?
Follow cbowman's steps, they should work for you.

If in the event they do not, try the following:

Start > Run... > type in "cmd" (without quotes) and hit Enter
When the Command Prompt starts, type in "sfc /scannow" (without quotes) and let that run. If it finds that any critical Windows files (rundll32.exe included) have been corrupted, it'll ask you for your XP CD, and then it will replace them.

Let me know if that works.
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ASKER

I had already tried what cbowman92 suggested.   As for the command prompt, as I stated, if I click on command prompt it asks me what application I want to open it with, and if I go to run and type in CMD I get the same question.
Go to c:\Windows\System32, and make a copy of cmd.exe, and then rename it to cmd.com
See if it launches.....

If it opens, check the following reg key as well in the registry (might need to reame regedit.exe as well.)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids

Default value should say 'exefile'........

You can actually rename your AV/Malware scanner's .exe file to .CMD/.COM/.PIF to see if they launch....
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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johnb6767
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I can't believe it....   I did what you said and the doughknox fixed everything.   I can open everything now on the desktop, and in the start menu.   You just saved me hours of work...
Thanks so much!