Help! - One of my exe.files doesn't execute

Although not too serious at the moment, I'm having problems getting one of my applications to open. When I click on it, nothing at all happens. No egg timer, no message, no nothing! It's a very simple application and it's a calendar that I keep on my desktop.

It was working yesterday but today I installed an alternative antivirus application (Avast!) in place of Norton. I couldn't totally uninstall Norton and followed instructions from a security site that involved deleting a few registry entries. I don't think that's the problem though. The instructions asked me to download and run Windows scripts (scripten.exe) and I think that's what's corrupted the exe. file that won't open. I may be totally off the mark here though.

For the record, the exe. file is 'cal.exe'. I even downloaded it again and ran it with the same result. As I said, the application is very small and simple. It can be downloaded from here : http://www.rmsft.com/downloads/cal.exe and I was wondering if anyone could download and run it properly? Don't worry. It's safe.

Any ideas or solutions much appreciated.

 

Hi ArthurLee,

I ran cal.exe and saw this in my Process Guard log:

[EXECUTION] "c:\windows\system32\ntvdm.exe" was allowed to run
[EXECUTION] Started by "c:\windows\explorer.exe" [1536]
[EXECUTION] Commandline - [ "c:\windows\system32\ntvdm.exe" -f -i1 -w -a c:\windows\system32\krnl386.exe ]

Found a thread at the Avast! forum that may help, NTVDM:

"The problem is in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers" key. In my PC, this key contained, for variable LDD, several lines : one for Norton antivirus (uninstalled !!!) and several same lines relating to AVAST. Solution : keep only one line AVAST and delete all other lines. NTVDM becomes OK, and 16 bits applications can run OK. With the bad key, NTVDM was excluded from task's list running on my PC, and NTVDM was blocked by AVAST."

Hope it helps.

Nick

 

Thanks Nick. This is definitely the source of the problem but what to do about it? In my registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers" key. I had 2 lines. One was 'default' and the other was 'VDD'. I deleted the 'VDD' line and ran cal.exe again. This time, I got the message 'System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers. VDD. Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid'

How do I fix this registry entry to show that only Avast! as my main VDD?

Thanks.

 

Here's my VirtualDeviceDrivers key saved as a text file. Rename it vdd.reg and double-click to restore it. Take a look at it first in notepad to make sure it looks like what you deleted. That will fix the error message.

Nick

 

From this thread, With SP2 Avast unables setup of older software, a registry patch is available. Like above, I attached it as a text file. Please read the thread first.

Nick

 

Thanks ever so much Nick. I followed the thread and installed the 'fix'. I can now open my calendar application! You're a star!

Thanks again.