PCTech Forums

Everytime I click on run, and type msconfig, it opens up and shuts instantly. it keeps doing this and it is getting on my nerves. I did a hijackthis scan and found something I didnt recognise called "Winexes.exe" which is being very strange indeed. I deleted it from hijack this, but when i scanned again after, it was still there. I can't seem to get rid of it...is it a bad file or something?

I'm worried that my computer will die again like it has done recently, and I need to be certain that it won't do it again!

Any ideas why Msconfig won't stay open and what winexes.exe is?

the only reference i can find to winexec.exe is that it is some sort of a trojen (virus). It seems it is smart enough to not allow you to run msconfig and delete it. It probably also checks regularly if it still resides in the registry run key (which is why it came back after hijackthis). You have 2 choices to remove it.

1.) let an antivirus program scan your computer. If you already run one, check up on it with Housecall Antivirus (free web based virus scan) I would probably do this even if you choose to manually remove winexec... their might be other problems.

2.) manually remove it. Go to the task manager, processes tab. Find winexec.exe in the list and then hit the End Process button. Use the search feature to find the file and delete or rename it. (from other posts it looks as though it'll be under the windows or windows/system32 folder) Then run hijackthis again and remove it again... it shouldn't come back.

I presesd Ctrl Alt Del and up came the list of progs running, but there was no winexes.exe there. I am confused now, and worried too! I am doing a virus scan, and it's found loads of worms and trojans etc. I don't know how to remove them, I am just a n00b! eeeek!

Thanks so much. I did that, deleted it, and now it doesn't appear on Hijackthis. I hope it doesn't come back as it was getting rather annoying!

Thanks guys, problem solved!

I am not sure what operating system you are running but if it is Windows ME you should also clear out the System Restore so you don't run the risk of getting re-infected again.

I'm with windows 98. It seems to be fine now, not sure what the system restore is, but if you think i should, i will clear it out.

There is no System Restore in Win98!

Cactus