I have a difficult-to-fix corrupted install on a Vista 64 laptop.
Looks like I'm a little late in the curve for the corrupted virus update to be the cause, probably happened on a free Avast v. 7 install on Sunday 3/11. May have been a conflict with a new printer driver configuration. I really don't have a lot of time on the PC to do forensics before it heats up and crashes, time after time.
Reading all the posts, and trying various things, I'm convinced I need to run aswClear.exe from Safe Mode to remove the corrupted install. Nothing else has been effective so far. However, I can't seem to get the program to run. I get an error message that it is not a valid Win 32 application.
Dialog with Red X in a circle: C:\(path)\aswclear.exe is not a valid Win32 application. (OK)
I've tried every way I can think of, from a Windows file manager window, from a "Run" window, even a DOS prompt, always the same error, Safe Mode or not. Since my time is limited on the target PC, I've also tried it on this XP laptop (no Avast install here to remove--would abort if I got it to run) with the same results.
Looking at the properties of the file on this PC, it is listed as "aswclear.exe", it is recognized as an Application by the OS, 113KB (116,573 bytes), taking up 116KB on the disk. One intriguing thing, there is a radio button to "Unblock" the file below the file info, since "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer." I've never run into this sort of Windows .exe file protection before, perhaps it is designed to block just this sort of low-level file execution. I'll try this next and report back. Then there's compatibility mode on the next tab--that shouldn't be an issue.
Filed a ticket with tech support last night, but no response so far. Don't expect a lot with a free product.
This is incredibly frustrating. My main PC is junk until I get this resolved, and for no good reason that I can find, the perfect little fix program won't run. Please advise if anyone else has had trouble running this file, or if I'm missing something really simple.
Thanks.