Folders showing up as applications HELP!!!

On my Flash Drive, USB HDD, and I think my regular HDD, folders have been showing up as .exe that point to the real folder, which is hidden.

It's been so annoying since I upload folders somethimes, and I have to find the 'hidden' folder and upload that since the real folder is a .exe and wont work in gmail.

I've run a NOD32 scan, Spybot, avast, etc scans and dont have anything that would seem to affect the PC.
This is also a brand new format of XP, I run styler, to make it look like Vista for my girlfriend, and rocket dock, plus QQ and some Chinese programs for her.

If I disable 'Show Hidden files and Folders" the folders still show up as applications.

So I have been deleting the "application" folder, and making the "hidden" folder visible.

But this happens a lot, to a lot of folders.

Any solutions? I tried googling but I don't know what to google!

EDIT:
I'm also using XP SP3

 

That is weird. Please attach a screenshot. It would be very helpful.

 

indeed--a picture would help--when did it start? Did you try system restore

 

You can try this. My computers - tools - folder options - views - select reset all folders.

 

I've reset all the folders many times due to something unrelated,
As I said, even the second after I installed XP this happened, so a sys restore wouldn't do anything (I have it turned off)
Here's a pic, but it is not going to change much, there's just a folder which is an application, and the hidden folder it points to.
ALSO when you click the "application" folder, it opens up the "hidden" folder in a new WINDOW.

 

When I open up the properties of the rosetta stone "hidden folder" The Hidden box is checked (obviously) and the Read Only box has a square in it (meaning that some people can read it and some cant.)

The rosetta stone "application" file ONLY has ARCHIVE box checked.

 

You'll need to check for file extension associations to see if those have been messed up; also, in terms of opening in a new window, under the dialogue box for folder properties you probably have the box ticked for opening each folder in a new explorer window.

 

Nope it says "Open each folder in the same window".
As far as FT assoc, under Folder and File Folder, there is NO assoc in the left column.

 

Why is there an autorun file on that memory stick.

I think its either a copy over from a CD / DVD or you have the lovely USB memory stick Virus that uses Autorun to spread itself.

If there is a Desktop.ini file in the folder then that can be used to change its icon to something else (windows looks for the desktop.ini file to see how it should show the folder to the end user, it also customises the view when the folder is opened).

 

Qwakrz makes a very good point that I hadn't thought of - check your desktop.ini files to see what's in 'em.

Editorial Comment: Of course no one's surprised that I didn't think of it - least of all me - that was just a figure of speech.

 

If you look closer I just installed the portable apps suite.
Hence the Autorun, that by the way, never works lol.

Where would I go to check the ini file?
My XP uses a program called Styler to get the Vista theme up, and it does include a set of custom icons for everything,

Also on that Virus, my girlfriend does use her other stick at school, she plugs it in to the school PC to get the class notes, as does the other 5,000 people in her class lol
AFAIK this was happening after i reinstalled xp (for the third time) and she didn't plug in her stick for 5 days or so after since the PC couldn't write in Chinese.

 

The desktop.ini file is a hidden system file kept within the Desktop folder itself.

 

And if you uninstall styler? What then?

 

I enabled the display of protected sys files, went to C:/DocsSet/Me/Desktop and only found Thumbs.db,
And the same on the Desktop folder from explorer, still nothing.

 

Yes, but did you uninstall STYLER?

Please uninstall STYLER and see if the problem is still evident. Then we can isolate where the problem is coming from

 

can give a log using hijackthis?

and since you said the autorun didn't work, its best to open it using notepad and see what's inside, it might have been replaced by virus autorun thus your application suite didn't work.

I have seen this on one of school's pc but its on windows 2000

 

I definately do have the Autorun Virus, I cleaned my Flash drive using the CMD prompt last night but I have it again.
Also the card for my phone has it, here's a screen of NOD32 and Avast. NOD can't remove the virus but Avast can.




8EAE66 I'm not sure what this is, I assumed it was part of the Distro I'm running since it was present upon install.

And other than CTFMON I know what mostly all this stuff is.

 

do you have any idea about
C:\Program Files\StormII\stormliv.exe
?

could you try to upload it to www.virustotal.com ?

and you using two antivirus? both real-time?
It is adviseable only to run one antivirus

 

NOD 32 is Real time Avast I just put on to remove the autorun thing.
Storm is storm player, it's the only way I can play RMVB (I install Real and Real Alt and an error pops up saying I can't write to the Reg, which is the only time this has happened.)

 

Anyone else?

 

did you found any autorun on your hard drive ?
and have you tried turn off your system restore? since some virus can slip into it and restore itself through system restore.

 

Sys Restore is Off.
And Autorun is on my HDD.
I'm going to sweep in a bt w/ Avast and delete it from everything.

 

use boot scan, better result

 

Try downloading, updating and running Malwarebytes anti-malware. You can also try this for removing the virus.

http://www.whoismadhur.com/2008/01/2...om-usb-drives/

 

I had a buddy remove it with the command prompt he made the autorun folders and disabled it.
I'll run that app in a bit and see if it helped any.

 

Does this happen if you make another account?
Did this happen from the start, or, if not, when did it start happening?

Cheers...

 

I believe it happened from the start.

 

You never answer questions fully so it is very difficult to help you.

Did you create another account? If so, what happened,

Did you ever remove styler--just temporarliy

We don't ask these questions because we are guessing. I have seen this behavior when a user loads a icon replacemnet program (like STYLER)

 

Yeah I removed styler but not the new account.
The problem was the autorun virus, which was removed. I'm just waiting for it's inevitable return, to decide what to do next.

 

create one and report back

 

start > run > regedit

report what you find in the followind key

[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

 

Here it is.

 

Does anyone know what this is?
I used tweak UI to turn off Autorun today.

 

does the autorun file still exist?

can you open it using notepad and copy the content to here ?
it might give a clue

 

What, exactly, did you do with Tweak UI (as in, what specific commands)?