A computer virus is a malicious program that is intended to corrupt the host systems and later, get spread to other systems on the network or connected to it by any means. These viruses can be of varying abilities to harm the system and can only be removed using an updated antivirus. However, at times these viruses attack your system so badly that it is almost impossible to remove them. In such cases, the only option that you have is to format the hard drives, after taking up the backup. If the system is inaccessible, then you should use a third-party data recovery software to recover the inaccessible data.

Let us consider a situation in which you are unable to start any executable file in your Windows XP system. Either of the following error messages is getting displayed in this regard:

"Windows cannot find FILES32.VXD. This program is needed for opening files of type "Application"."

OR

"Path to program is not a valid Windows application"

When these error messages occur, the desktop may appear to be blank. At times, you may also face these issues at the system startup.

Cause:

The most possible cause of this problem is the Pretty Park virus. This virus creates the 'Files32.vxd' file and copies the file to WindowsSystem folder of the system. In addition, this virus modifies a registry key to run the 'Files32.vxd' file, which is executed each time an exe file is invoke.

Resolution: To resolve this problem, you should remove the registry entry from the Registry Editor. For this, the following steps are required:

Open Registry Editor by logging onto the system by Safe Mode. Modify the following registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareClassesExefileShellOpenCommand Remove "files32.vxd" from the following entry: : REG_SZ: "files32.vxd" "%1" %* Close Registry Editor and search for the 'files32.vxd' file. From the search results, delete the 'files32.vxd' file.

If the problem is persisting even after performing these steps, then you should look to reinstall the operating system after formatting the hard drive. However, if the system is inaccessible then you should recover the data using a recovery software. These data recovery tools have rich user interface that make the recovery extremely safe and secure.

Of all the Windows recovery tools, Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most efficient, which recovers lost, formatted, or deleted data from various storage devices. Able to recover more than 185 different file types, this RAID recovery software works on FAT, NTFS, and exFAT file systems. In addition, this file recovery software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.