Hey all, this is my first post here, im HOPING to et some answers

I'm using Windows XP homeedition. WELL i turned on my computer YESTERDAY to find that none of my programs would open, except windows messenger and Internet Explorer (hence how i'm typing this). When i try to open a program, like iTunes for instance, it comes up with the message "a later version is already installed. installation cannot continue", even though iTunes is allready installed and was working fine yesterday morning.

Another problem i cant access "all programs" from the start menu, clicking on the all prgrams ICON does nothing at all. I cannot system restore as it says its unable to restore at this time. Restarting does not have any affect, starting in safe mode doesnt work and i cant completely wipe my system as im not given this option on startup, even whilst pressing "ctrl + F8"

I can however access photos and word documents ect. allthough i cannot open them due to microsoft word not working.

If anyone can shed some light on the problem, it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.Hornzog .......... Strange that all these issues just appeared at the same time and right out of the blue.

You are using XP home .......
Do you have sp2 installed and all the other critical updates ?

Do you have your original windows xp home edition cd if required?

Does your machine have a working updated anti-virus?

If you go to My Computer/Program files ........ open the programs folder and find the program you wish to use, are you able to open the program from there?

Did you do a windows update yesterday before this all started or any other software update?

Are you able to get into the bios if necessary?


dl65 Firstly, thanks for your interest in the problem.

I do have SP2 installed and i did have a working anti-virus system (which now doesnt start up)

I have the windows home edition CD

I did not install any updates before the problem occured, but Windows Automatic Updates keeps trying to update the same security update over and over again.

I was able to install Microsoft Office again by using the CD, and itunes now opens through clicking on a music file in my documents.

Not being totally familiar with computers I don't know what bios is/how to access it.

Through program files i can access a few programs like Windows Media Player, Guitar Pro, but not everything. It seems most of the programs downloaded via the internet work without too many problems. But theres no sign of my anti-virus. And where i used to have around 10 programs starting up, which appeared in the task bar, nothing no longer starts up and the internet only connects when i open internet explorer.

Thanks for your reply.Do you have any antivirus installed?
did it detect and erase any suspected threats?