# Solved: Cannot find NOTEPAD.EXE



## Â§onic â¬hao (Apr 3, 2005)

This may sound crazy, but the computer keeps telling me that it cannot find notepad.exe . Is there a soltion? (I can still open notepad manually, but whenever I click on a text file it does not work)


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## tracer357#1 (Jul 19, 2004)

?onic ?hao said:


> This may sound crazy, but the computer keeps telling me that it cannot find notepad.exe . Is there a soltion? (I can still open notepad manually, but whenever I click on a text file it does not work)


log off reboot into safe mode and run "scandisk".
you did not mention what version of windows you have.
did you add or remove any hardware or software by chance?
scandisk should help maybe you have a corrupted file or spyware on your system and need to clean your system out.

also clean out you "internet temporary files " out.

also check your system registry it could have files or folders that can be removed.
if you do not know anything about registry then check with someone that can guide you through the program.


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## Â§onic â¬hao (Apr 3, 2005)

This has been happening ever since "day 1" (wheb I was not eeven connected to the internet). I still have access to Notepad files, (opening notepad and hitting Open, selecting file) but it is just a nuesance to do it that way. I will run scan disk and spybot now, and have an HJT log ready when I am done.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Make sure you have a copy of it in c:\windows

Right click on it and select Properties > Version. Make sure it has a Microsoft copyright.

If it is in c:\windows and still not being found when you left click a file with a .txt extension, download and unzip fully the attached file.

"doubleclick" it to run it and accept the prompt to merge to the registry. Then test open a txt file


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## Â§onic â¬hao (Apr 3, 2005)

Here is an update:

Ran Scandisk, going to run Spybot.


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## Â§onic â¬hao (Apr 3, 2005)

Rollin' Rog, i tried everything there, still not working. Now that I downloaded that .ZIP file, I get little green things on my icons?


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

That happened after merging the file? It may have to do with your shell32.dll version, but in itself the icon should not affect whether it is found or not.

Try the same procedure with this part of the txt file association; I included one before.

If the problem persists, then these patches have not helped. If this is WinME run scanreg /restore from start > run and select the last started registry.

If Win98 restart in MS-DOS mode and run:

scanreg /restore

Make sure the date chosen is recent. If they are very old it means you do not have scanregistry enabled in msconfig.


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## q_ethics (Nov 8, 2004)

i'm not sure if this is even related to your problem ... i had this notepad problem and it was because of a virus/trojan CoolWebSearch

this helped me out :

http://www.richardthelionhearted.com/~merijn/winfiles.html


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of and was why I asked if the copy in c:\windows had a Microsoft copyright.

It won't hurt to replace it one way or the other.


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## Â§onic â¬hao (Apr 3, 2005)

CoolWebSearch!!! That is what Spybot keeps telling me it cannot delete!!!


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Now you tell us. Did you post your CWS problem in the Security forum?

Download and install HijackThis using the "self extractor". Run it and select "do a system scan and save the log file". Then copy/paste the contents of the log to a reply

http://www.thespykiller.co.uk/files/hijackthis_sfx.exe








Have these instructions printed or in a convenient Notepad (or Wordpad) file so you can view them in Safe Mode. Have "show hidden (or all) files" checked in Folder Options > View in case you have to search for any hidden files to delete. Also ensure you do NOT have "hide file extensions..." enabled in Folder Options > View

If HijackThis has not been downloaded or copied to a *permanent* folder, move it there before beginning.

Download and unzip to a convenient location the CoolWebShredder, CWShredder.exe available here: http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html

Then:

*1 >> Restart in Safe Mode. * Instructions here if you need them:http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001052409420406

*2 >> In Safe Mode run the CoolWebShredder* and have it "fix" detected problems.

Post a HijackThis Scanlog after running the CWS remover.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

There are viruses that change the notepad file. Seen more than once where then the anti-virus program deletes the file.

Can you search your computer for notepad.exe. Normally it is right there in the \windows directory.

If the file has simply been delete, you can extract it from your source cab files.


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## Â§onic â¬hao (Apr 3, 2005)

Update:

After installing Notepad.exe from http://www.richardthelionhearted.com/~merijn/files/windows/notepad_98.zip and placing it in: C:/WINDOWS/ the problem has stopped. Thanks!

I will do the above directions.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Glad the idea to simply copy notepad to the \windows directory worked.

Do you have the source files available just in case something else comes up. Might want to even copy them to a directory on your hard drive if there is room. 

Also, do you know how to extract individual files from the cab files? Then you don't need to go searching around the internet again.


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## Â§onic â¬hao (Apr 3, 2005)

I went to safe mode and deleted CoolWebSearch. Everything is fixed now. Thanks, everybody!!


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