What can cause an executable to exit immediately after being opened unless I use Run As?

We have a user who is unable to open some .exe files by any means except for right-clicking on the file and selecting "Run as...", and specifying login info.

I've tried opening the file a number of ways. By default, it should be launched by another program, however I've also tried double-clicking it to open it, and starting it from the command prompt using start MyFile.exe

When trying to launch an executable, nothing appears to happen. The program does not appear in Task Manager and nothing appears to be getting started up at all.

But I still get EventId 592 in the EventManager saying "A new process has been created" and specifying the executable's name, and immediately afterwards there is EventId 593 saying "A process has exited" for the executable.

Right-clicking the file and using "Run as..." does not work if I choose the "Current user" radio option, however specifying "The following user" option and filling in the credentials for the current user works fine.

All the programs that are failing to open begin with a 3rd login control and use a 3rd party control library, however not all programs that start with that login control or use that 3rd party control library are failing to open.

What can cause this behavior, and what do I need to do to fix it?

Solution 1:

First thing that comes to mind is that a virus/trojan hijacked the .exe class by inserting a wrapper executable, and when you removed that virus, you lost that wrapper. I would check registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exe entry and see if anything funny is going on there, possibly restoring it from another windows installation.