.txt to .exe problems
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THIS IS GOING TO SOUND REALLY STUPID TO YOU BUT JUST TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN I changed the extension of a .txt to a .exe to see what would hapen if I ran it and now I can't change the file name or delete it. What should I do?
Restart your computer and windows will allow you to delete it. There is still some stuff in memory that windows hasn't shaken. Oh, and next time you do that make it a .com file and it might actually do something (coms are just exes without all the extra meta data).
Quote:Original post by Drakkcon
Oh, and next time you do that make it a .com file and it might actually do something (coms are just exes without all the extra meta data).
Probably just crash, though.
Quote:Original post by FrunyQuote:Original post by Drakkcon
Oh, and next time you do that make it a .com file and it might actually do something (coms are just exes without all the extra meta data).
Probably just crash, though.
I suppose if you were good enough, you could look up all the instruction encodings and convert them into ASCII and write your program that way.
Quote:Original post by Drakkcon
Restart your computer and windows will allow you to delete it. There is still some stuff in memory that windows hasn't shaken. Oh, and next time you do that make it a .com file and it might actually do something (coms are just exes without all the extra meta data).
I'm sure glad this thread was not about converting .txt files into .exe's [smile]. Anyways I wouldn't try renaming files into .exe or .com and running them. There could be a freak accident that by chance the code ran something such as del *.* or format or something like that. Very near impossible - but as they say "s- happens".
If you are using WinXP - check to see that the .exe was not still running when you closed it. You could then kill the process tree and try to delete.
There's a real nice file utility that I use that's now freeware to delete files that windows won't let you delete. Its called GiPo@MoveOnBoot. You can find it at http://gibinsoft.net/. From the download page, I use the Old Version (which is free). It adds a tab to your context menu in Windows Explorer so when you right click you can select "Delete file(s) on next boot". It also adds a tab to the "Properties" menu of a file that will allow you to rename it on the next boot. All this basically does is before Windows can lock access to the file on boot, this utility will rename/delete the file for you. It should solve your problem.
Procmon also helps out in that closing the open handle generally allows you to delete such problem files.
I always had a problem with bad video files that I couldn't get unloaded when I would highlight them with Windows Explorer. I would right-click it to delete it, and Explorer would try to get information on it and it would stall until I ctrl+alt+del. I had to go to the prompt and delete it through that.
I recall renaming files to .com back before I used Windows and sometimes it would send data to my printer (bad idea and lots of wasted paper).
I recall renaming files to .com back before I used Windows and sometimes it would send data to my printer (bad idea and lots of wasted paper).
Cool idea to try out, funny too ;)
Just restart your comp and rename you file back to a txt.If you cant see the exe extention use a DOS console to rename the file ;)
Just restart your comp and rename you file back to a txt.If you cant see the exe extention use a DOS console to rename the file ;)
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