Elilai

Thanks for your reply. I mean to try a boot in safe mode yesterday and got sidetracked with all my other searching for a solution. Finally did it just now; all the problem programs that will run in safe mode DID run... and when I rebooted, they all now work... I wish I understood all this. I am very relieved. Thank you for your help and advice.

Actually now I'm wondering if the new installation of CCleaner 5.67 didn't install some malware or a trojan... Any comments please? I downloaded it from the Ccleaner site.

PLS HELP. I clean my registry periodically with Ccleaner, always make the backup first. I've never had any trouble... Yesterday I first upgraded from Ccleaner 5.63 to 5.67. Cleaned the registry. Did not pay attention to what was cleaned up... but I did back up the registry first. Now I have 7 programs that will not run. I go to their .exe file in file manager and click and it says: Windows cannot find c:\program... and it gives the full, correct path. But they won't open. The rest of my programs work as normal. There is nothing else that I did on my computer or anything obvious... I am assuming it is due to the registry clean. I have done MANY things to try to sort this out. Nothing has helped. It is a mix of old and new programs that will not open; other very old and brand new programs still work. What else can I try?? I have tried: 1. restore the backup registry; it didn't help. 2. I use AVG internet security; I did a deep virus scan. Installed Malawarebytes, scanned. No change. Uninstalled AVG in case it was conflicting. No change. Windows Defender is now running. 3. Updated my Win 10, did not help. 4. Checked in the registry for .exe=exefile and suggestions to enter "%1" %* was already in there. 5. Uninstalled 2 of the non-working programs- NordVPN and Acrobat Reader DC, reinstalled them. Same problem. 6. Created a new user account, installed NordVPN and still have the same problem. Unfortunately I don't have an image backup of my whole system. Any suggestions would be most welcome.