Can't run .exe on Windows 8

Feronix

New member
Heya guys,

So my neighbour had asked me to build him a PC for his work. Because of that he also wanted me to include a legal copy of Windows. I went with Windows 7 cause I knew it would just work and he had no experience with Windows 8.

A week after ordering the webshop called and said that the supplier was not sending out their products as promised and so Windows 7 became unavailable. He got given the choice to either leave the OS or go with Windows 8 and he chose the last option.

It all arrived last Friday and I immediately put it all together. When I tried to install the OS I would get an error which didn't go away after some bios tweaks. After a quick call with the webshop, where they told me to run the Sata mode in IDE instead of AHCI, I got it working and installed Windows 8.

When making an account in Windows 8, they want you to use your existing Microsoft account or make a new one. Since I didn't know my neighbours details, I went with a local account which only required the simple things it did in Win7 (User name and possibly a password). I left the password blank.

I put the WDN 4800 (WiFi) drivers on a USB and installed them from there. I then went to the MSI website, downloaded the necessary drivers from there and installed those. All via the .exe files and all without any sort of problem.


My neighbour picked it up Saturday morning and put it all down at his house. That afternoon he already showed up at the door. His internet wasn't working properly and he couldn't install a program. I firstly installed the program. Got an error message which took me through the Windows help thing, and via there it would install (probably just put it in compatibility mode).

Secondly he was complaining that his internet was slow and unstable. What do you expect when you have 30mb/s internet and desperately want to run WiFi even though the signal has to go through 2 concrete floors. I figured that maybe it'd help if I updated the drivers so I went to the TP Link website and downloaded them.

Every time I tried to run the .exe it would give me an error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
I tried to run another installer but I got the same error. Tried to re-install the WDN 4800 drivers from the disc but that didn't work either.

Then put in the Motherboard disc and tried to install both drivers that I already installed from there but I got the same error.


I Googled it and worked down the first few pages of Google with possible fixes, both in Dutch and English. The most common fixes existed out of a Regedit, turning off SmartScreen or creating a new user account. The thing is, when I try to acces any of those, they are all .exe files, and I get the same error.
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion

So basically I cannot enter anything, I cannot install programs or make changes within Windows. Everything is completely locked down.

The neighbour claims that he has only put the PC there, plugged everything in and booted it up. Honestly, I'm not so sure but it's my problem either way.


Has ANYONE every heard of this issue before and do you have ANY idea how to fix this? Maybe even a work-around to get into Regedit? (Tried via notepad and saving as .reg but I got the same error).

I've tried running as admin, not running as admin, running in different compatibility modes or none at all but nothing seems to work. I've already spent 5 hours on this shit thing and I'm getting sick of it :(



TL;DR:
Can't open any .exe or .reg files in Windows 8. Did work before, neighbour denies making any changes to the pc. Can't open regedit or change any Windows files either. Can't install programs. Can't create/change user accounts. It's a clean install of 2 days old.


Thanks in advance,
 
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Have you tried using a Hirens boot disk and running the CMD in Admin then try running the .exes from there?

Hirens also has a Regedit program on disk which should allow you to access the registry without windows loading and blocking you.
 
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Have you tried using a Hirens boot disk and running the CMD in Admin then try running the .exes from there?

Hirens also has a Regedit program on disk which should allow you to access the registry without windows loading and blocking you.

Thanks for your reply! I think I'm going to give Microsoft a call tomorrow in the afternoon (told my neighbour to call tomorrow morning and if they can fix the issue then that'd be good). If neither helps, I'm going to try this.

If all of the above doesn't resolve it I guess there's not much more to do than a format and re-install? If even that fails he'll have to figure out a way to get Windows 7 on there cause I'm honestly so done with this. :mellow:

Thanks for your help though! :)
 
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