Help Please. A friend can no longer use system restore.

[lastlib]

5. I think it's possible you have a corrupted registry.....

I had a similar problem about a year ago, when after removing a Trojan, my system wouldn't run any .exe files. I can't recall all the specifics now, but after long investigation, I found a registry entry that basically substituted a file with no extension for any .exe file I tried to run. I had to remove that registry entry, then adjust a couple others, and that took care of it. Sorry I can't recall the specifics better, but it involved a lot of machine gibberish. But this might be an angle for you to pursue. In the registry (Start, Run, regedit), look for an entry in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for .exe, and see if there are any entries/values there that look unusual. Not sure I can really tell you where to go from there, it may be kind of "by the Braille method"....

Hope this helps!