Unable to open downloaded executables

Hi all,

I got a free HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop from my roommate which had Vista Home Premium on it and was very laggy. I uninstalled a number of useless programs I didn't need & installed a few I thought I would need such as A/V, anti-malware & an updated Firefox. I then installed SP1, SP2, Platform Update & Platform Update Supplement.

I wanted to install CCleaner & a defrag program, but have been unable to open any of the programs in my download folder since patching the OS. At first I thought it was a known bug with CCleaner; however I found an article on Microsoft.com regarding this issue & followed the steps to recreate my Temp folder. That article can be found here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/932142

I have tried a couple different defrag programs, but am still unable to open the downloaded executable in any way - double clicking, right clicking, run as administrator, using the open command from the shell - nothing works. If I absolutely have to I will use the built-in defrag tool, but am reluctant to have it spend hours defragging my HDD.

Any suggestions?

 

So I found another MS article dealing with this problem. It can be found here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2688326

I opened Regedit as instructed by the article, however in Step 6 it states to locate the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile

There is no such key in my registry! So does this mean I have to create it?

 

Yes, you will need to create it.
I can send you the relevant key information if you like in a .reg file via PM if you like, by the way.