HELP! all .exe files unrecognizable in winXP

please help

i dont know what happened, but none of the .exe files on windows xp are recognizable and i cannot run almost anything, luckily internet explorer is somewhat accessable

while currently doing research on how to solve this problem i ran over a thread with the same problem stating that it is malware that deletes a "folder options" profile that describes what the .exe file has to do

but how to resolve this issue i have no clue
please help

 

the problem is i cannot run any scans because exe files are unrecognizable
when i try to run any exe file i get this message"

windows cannot open this file:
to open this file, windows needs to know what program created it, windows can go online to look it up automatically, or you can manually select from a list of programs on your computer

 

Download, unzip this Registry patch From Doug's 95/98Me/XP Tweaks & Tips, http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/xp_exe_fix.zip. Double-click on xp_exe_fix.reg and answer 'Yes', then reboot.

 

i think i have managed to get the exe files working
after the first try to settings were reset
but after running ccleaner the problem doesnt seem to happen so i think

i have noticed that the same thing has happenes with .com, .lnk, .reg files
im not sure if there are other extentions with the same problem

 

nope i was wrong, exe attributes still get reset, thus the malware is still functional i have managed to hijackthis while in safe mode, which i will post in its appropriate thread in the malware section

as for other extension types anybody have a solution?