Sticky registry reference...Vista

[occam]

I am cleaning up a Vista PC belonging to my son, which has been filled
up will all manner of crap (games, more games and 'PUP's - potentially
unwanted programs) over the last 3 years. (Same son, same computer -
mentioned in the thread in this NG titled 'Which folder does Vista
usually keep desktop icons')

On startup, there is the non-fatal system error:
"Could not load or run C:\Users\<son>\LOCALS~1\Temp|ccimvxcaa.exe
specified in the registry. Make sure the file exists on your computer or
remove the reference to it in the registry"

The file "ccimvxcaa.exe" does not exist on the computer. I have tracked
down the file reference to the offending registry location:
HKEY_CURRENT USER\SW\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Windows\

Load REG_SZ C:\Users\<son>\LOCALS~1\Temp\ccimvxcaa.exe

However, I am unable to remove the Data pointing to the missing .exe.

Again - thanks for any help.

 

[Paul]

I am cleaning up a Vista PC belonging to my son, which has been filled
up will all manner of crap (games, more games and 'PUP's - potentially
unwanted programs) over the last 3 years. (Same son, same computer -
mentioned in the thread in this NG titled 'Which folder does Vista
usually keep desktop icons')

On startup, there is the non-fatal system error:
"Could not load or run C:\Users\<son>\LOCALS~1\Temp|ccimvxcaa.exe
specified in the registry. Make sure the file exists on your computer or
remove the reference to it in the registry"

The file "ccimvxcaa.exe" does not exist on the computer. I have tracked
down the file reference to the offending registry location:
HKEY_CURRENT USER\SW\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Windows\

Load REG_SZ C:\Users\<son>\LOCALS~1\Temp\ccimvxcaa.exe

However, I am unable to remove the Data pointing to the missing .exe.

Again - thanks for any help.

The inability to find "ccimvxcaa.exe" in my search engines,
tells me that some PUP was cleaned up, but not the registry
entry for it. Some installers of this kinda crap, they use
a nine character random program name. Previous to that,
they used eight character random program names (we call that...
progress).

Sometimes, a registry key has the permissions changed on it.
You would want to change the ownership, so you can work on it,
delete it or whatever.

I've seen at least one registry key, on a newer OS, where
Microsoft put the protections on it. And I had to undo that,
to "fix" it. So it does occasionally happen, that such
a permissions problem, was actually caused by Microsoft.
But in your case, the third-party software did it, to keep
you from deleting it.

The actual "ccimvxcaa.exe" file was probably quarantined
by your AV software, and that's why it is not affecting
you right now.

Paul

 

[occam]

The inability to find "ccimvxcaa.exe" in my search engines,
tells me that some PUP was cleaned up, but not the registry
entry for it. Some installers of this kinda crap, they use
a nine character random program name. Previous to that,
they used eight character random program names (we call that...
progress).

Sometimes, a registry key has the permissions changed on it.
You would want to change the ownership, so you can work on it,
delete it or whatever.

I've seen at least one registry key, on a newer OS, where
Microsoft put the protections on it. And I had to undo that,
to "fix" it. So it does occasionally happen, that such
a permissions problem, was actually caused by Microsoft.
But in your case, the third-party software did it, to keep
you from deleting it.

The actual "ccimvxcaa.exe" file was probably quarantined
by your AV software, and that's why it is not affecting
you right now.

Paul

Thanks Paul. However the annoyance is still there - the pop-up error is
there at every bootup.
How can I force the registry value of the 'Load' to null? (I have
checked MS Essentials under quarantined items, I cannot see "ccimvxcaa.exe"

 

[BobbyM]

The inability to find "ccimvxcaa.exe" in my search engines,
tells me that some PUP was cleaned up, but not the registry
entry for it. Some installers of this kinda crap, they use
a nine character random program name. Previous to that,
they used eight character random program names (we call that...
progress).

Sometimes, a registry key has the permissions changed on it.
You would want to change the ownership, so you can work on it,
delete it or whatever.

I've seen at least one registry key, on a newer OS, where
Microsoft put the protections on it. And I had to undo that,
to "fix" it. So it does occasionally happen, that such
a permissions problem, was actually caused by Microsoft.
But in your case, the third-party software did it, to keep
you from deleting it.

The actual "ccimvxcaa.exe" file was probably quarantined
by your AV software, and that's why it is not affecting
you right now.

See if the offending program is in the startup folder; if it is, delete
it. If it's not there, run msconfig, click on the start up tab & see if
you can find the program there. Disable it & restart & see if that
fixed the problem.

 

[Dave-UK]

Thanks Paul. However the annoyance is still there - the pop-up error is
there at every bootup.
How can I force the registry value of the 'Load' to null? (I have
checked MS Essentials under quarantined items, I cannot see "ccimvxcaa.exe"

Why can't you just delete the value 'Load'.

 

[Paul]

Why can't you just delete the value 'Load'.

This article says the default value is blank. And the machine
I'm typing this on, the value is blank there as well.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc962695.aspx

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\load

Try looking under Editermissions and see if there is something
that prevents changes.

Even if you made a .reg file, with the necessary change, and
tried to merge that in, that's not going to work if there
is a permissions problem.

"Somebody" owns that registry key, and it's your job to
figure out who.

"Assign permissions to a registry key"
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc728310(v=WS.10).aspx

A bit more detail here.
http://techlogon.com/2012/11/26/how-to-change-permissions-of-a-registry-key/

Paul

 

[occam]

Why can't you just delete the value 'Load'.

pop-up error "Unable to delete all specified values"

 

[occam]

See if the offending program is in the startup folder; if it is, delete
it. If it's not there, run msconfig, click on the start up tab & see if
you can find the program there. Disable it & restart & see if that
fixed the problem.

No, the program is not in Startup. Nor can I see it under 'start up'
with msconfig.

 

[occam]

This article says the default value is blank. And the machine
I'm typing this on, the value is blank there as well.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc962695.aspx

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\load

Try looking under Editermissions and see if there is something
that prevents changes.

Even if you made a .reg file, with the necessary change, and
tried to merge that in, that's not going to work if there
is a permissions problem.

"Somebody" owns that registry key, and it's your job to
figure out who.

Bingo! Thanks Paul. I re-assigned the 'special' permission to
'everyone'. Deleting the value (setting to 'null') became possible.

Thanks again.

 

[VanguardLH]

I am cleaning up a Vista PC ...

Vista newsgroup = alt.os.windows-vista

 

[occam]

Vista newsgroup = alt.os.windows-vista

The issue was resolved perfectly well here (see post by Paul)