OK ~5pm yesterday, windows decided to start giving my the middle finger everytime I try to open a program. So I left my comp on all morning, and when I get home it's sitting on a blue screen, "Hard Error.... blah blah windows needs to restart" I was to stupid to write the code down, and can't seem to find it in the event viewer?

Upon restart, it's like im in safe mode, only the sound and network icon shows up on the start bar. ~10 minutes of windows being on, the updates icon eventually pops up. But clicking on it any cause the little circle (loading) icon to appear then nothing.

Every program I try to run just cause the mouse to turn into the loading circle for 5 seconds then nothing ever opens. Strangely these programs do work

Internet Explorer (64 bit)
Photoshop (64 bit)
MS paint
Any pre install windows games ie chess, minesweeper...

Things that won't work,
any game
steam
fraps
mozilla
visual studio
AVG
Adaware
the list goes on.

Now included in that list is anythiong I download... so it's impossible to try and get another virus app installed, because all installers won't load.

Tests I've been able to run
checkDisk -- no errors on the hardrive
MemTest --- no errors with ram
Tried both vid cards seperately -- no change

Has anyone else had this happen.... and no I doubt it's a "exe file association" problem, as I've checked my registry and both .exe and exefile are set probperly with no added values. I can't find my windows disc, and I don't have the ~$100 bucks to buy a new disc... especially when I splurged for the ultimate back when.

It's a shame microsoft doesn't have one of the single best support sites in the world for questions like this to get accurate and rapid responses.

durr... did yesterday. Everyone screams "exe file association"

windows does that, reinstall.

[quote name='freeworld' timestamp='1326683726' post='4903113']
[quote name='way2lazy2care' timestamp='1326682426' post='4903111']
It's a shame microsoft doesn't have one of the single best support sites in the world for questions like this to get accurate and rapid responses.

durr... did yesterday. Everyone screams "exe file association"
[/quote]

Did you actually put in a support ticket or just post on their support forums? There is a difference.
[/quote]

Sorry that probably came off rude... forums... I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy a new disc. gives me a reason to test drive a ssd card for the first time.

Format and try again. Assuming all your stuff is backed up formatting is usually the easiest option when you have problems with windows. Takes only a few hours depending on your HD write speed and Internet connection. Was able to to a full format and install of all my software in 3 hours a few months ago with all windows updates. (SSD and 1gbps line at work).

Ditto!
I wasted several hours last week trying to get Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed on my Windows machine and it kept failing with crytpic error messages and tried like 100 different methods trying to get it to install I found by googling to no avail. I should've known better and saved myself tons of time just by reinstalling and starting with a clean Windows install

Did you try restoring to a previous workable state?