Windows 98SE Unable to delete or rename MS-DOS .exe files. \ VOGONS

Windows 98SE Unable to delete or rename MS-DOS .exe files.

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First post, by Totempole

Posted on 2014-09-25, 23:08

Totempole Offline

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I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm having a weird issue on one of my Windows 98 systems. For some reason, I can't rename or delete any DOS based .exe files. I get the standard Access Denied, File in use or Write Protected error.

I can rename or delete any Windows based .exe files and any other file types just fine. I can also move DOS based .exe files into folders and delete the folder with the DOS based .exe file inside it.

In the command prompt or MS-DOS mode, I can do everything. I can move, rename and delete DOS based .exe files as necessary.

I have tried booting in Safe Mode, but I still have the same issue. Even if I disable everything and do a diagnostic startup I have this issue.

If anyone has any idea why this is happening and what I could do to fix it, I would be eternally grateful. I really don't want to have to reload this PC 😀

My Retro Gaming PC:
Pentium III 450MHz Katmai Slot 1
Transcend 256MB PC133
Gigabyte GA-6BXC
MSI Geforce 2 MX400 AGP
Ensoniq ES1371 PCI
Sound Blaster AWE64 ISA

Reply 1 of 7, by DosFreak

Posted on 2014-09-25, 23:56

DosFreak Offline

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Only time I've seen this happen is with securom infected games.

When you launch those games a buggy shell handler is installer that causes this behavior. Only solution is to kill explorer.exe to delete the file (and delete the shell extension file while you are at it).

If you don't crack the game then when you run the game it will install it again.

Never noticed if it caused the same issue on 9x.

You can try older vers of regmon and filemon from sysinternals (v7) to see if you can find the issue.

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Reply 2 of 7, by Totempole

Posted on 2014-09-26, 00:08

Totempole Offline

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Securom infected? I thought Securom was a from of copy protection. Is there anything I can do to try and pinpoint the problem?

Thanks.

My Retro Gaming PC:
Pentium III 450MHz Katmai Slot 1
Transcend 256MB PC133
Gigabyte GA-6BXC
MSI Geforce 2 MX400 AGP
Ensoniq ES1371 PCI
Sound Blaster AWE64 ISA

Reply 3 of 7, by filipetolhuizen

Posted on 2014-09-26, 04:18

filipetolhuizen Offline

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He's got a point. Some protections are like viruses, hard to get rid of, specially securom, that pest. 🤣
They could've just stayed with passwords... But for now, try to find your securom protected game and search for anything unusual in msconfig.exe.

Reply 4 of 7, by Totempole

Posted on 2014-09-26, 11:35

Totempole Offline

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Nothing unusual on Startup on msconfig. I've also tried disabling everything including processing Autoexec.bat, Config.sys, Win.ini, System.ini, etc. Even with everything disabled, even drivers, only running the process explorer.exe I have the same issue. Even booting in Safe mode I have this problem. If it is a virus, it can only be in the registry or an injected Windows 98SE system file.

Any thoughts on where I should look.

I could also try running a virus scan on the hard drive from a Win7 system, but that could result in some false positives which could damage the Windows 98SE Installation.

EDIT: From what I can find, A lot of my games installed on this machine are Safedisc protected. But none of them are proteced with Securom, except maybe Diablo II.

My Retro Gaming PC:
Pentium III 450MHz Katmai Slot 1
Transcend 256MB PC133
Gigabyte GA-6BXC
MSI Geforce 2 MX400 AGP
Ensoniq ES1371 PCI
Sound Blaster AWE64 ISA

Reply 5 of 7, by Davros

Posted on 2014-09-26, 18:04

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If it is securom try this
https://support.securom.com/removaltool.html

securom is usually controlled by
CmdLineExt.dll
CmdLineExt_x64.dll

Guardian of the Sacred Five Terabyte's of Gaming Goodness

Reply 6 of 7, by Totempole

Posted on 2014-09-26, 18:33

Totempole Offline

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Joined: 2011-10-27, 22:45
Location: South Africa

Doesn't seem to be Securom. The removal tool doesn't help.

On startup, I only have 3 processes running: Explorer, Wmencagt and Systray.

Edit: I spoke to soon. Found a file called CmdLineExt03.dll, I deleted it and magically regained control of my executable files. 😀

Now to find out which game is generating it. 😠

Thanks a million to all of you for helping me with this. Even if it regenerates, at least I know where to look for it. I would never have figured that out on my own.

My Retro Gaming PC:
Pentium III 450MHz Katmai Slot 1
Transcend 256MB PC133
Gigabyte GA-6BXC
MSI Geforce 2 MX400 AGP
Ensoniq ES1371 PCI
Sound Blaster AWE64 ISA

Reply 7 of 7, by Davros

Posted on 2014-09-29, 20:14

Davros Offline

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Glad we could help

Guardian of the Sacred Five Terabyte's of Gaming Goodness

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