Hi guys,
Anyone having a problem with the Explorer popping up with for example the folder c:\program opened every time you start your computer?
I got that problem after installing avast on win98.
After installing the Avast antivirus for home users in a “c:\program files.…” or a “d:\program files.…” directory or whatever path that contains spaces in the name the registry will be messed up since the developers didn’t put " " around “program files”.
Please fix this problem since it’s frustrating having d:\program opened every time you start your computer.
Taking a look in the registry every path for autostart programs should have quotas around it if it contains spaces.
These are the common keys
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (most common)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\Setup
There is a smart program doing this check and correcting every faulty path in your registry which can be downloaded at http://www.pekspro.com/pmfix.html (in swedish though!)
I do have avast! in Windows 98 without any of your described troubles...
That’s because you don’t have any folder called Program (or even a file called program.exe) in the root of your system drive.
For example, if you try to start a program called C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Msinfo\Msinfo32.exe
and you don’t enclose the name in quotes, then Windows do the following (usually, at least):
Check for the file C:\Program
If such a file exists (C:\Program.exe, C:\Program.bat, etc), the file is started and the rest is passed to it as command-line arguments.
If not, check for the file C:\Program Files\Common
Again, if such a file exists, it’s started.
If not, check for the file C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
… etc.
If it’s just a folder, the default “open” actions is performed on start - it’s opened in Explorer.
Therefore, having a folder called Program on the system drive (and installing your applications into Program Files folder at that) is calling for troubles.