[njay]

Hi.
I'm sure this is not the right subforum, but it's the best I could do. Maybe the problem just doesn't fall under the scope of the forum.

Anyway, my problem has been that MS Paint does not run properly 9 out of 10 times. It's a really light-weight program, but it just freezes up or works incredibly slowly (and takes up a load of memory!) whenever I try to use it. Other programs work fine -- and this includes heavy-weight graphics programs!

I think this happened around the time I got a weird spyware thingo to take over IE (it kept sending me pop-ups, also off-line, about fake virus software). I got rid of that since, and my laptop runs fine, and everything is as it was before. Except MS Paint.

I use it for sketching with my pen and tablet a lot, so I kinda miss it...

What could this be?

Cheers
nj

[Advertisements]

Welcome to Geeks2Go! Let's see if it's a file that's missing or messed up:

Try This:

You can download MS Paint Here:
http://download.micr...-us/paintnt.exe
Save it to Desktop...

Now double-click on paintnt and allow it to finish.
Now you should have 6 new files on your Desktop...

Double-click on MSPAINT and test it out to see if it freezes... If it's no good than you can delete the files..

If it works then do the following to make things neater and replace the one in the start menu:

Right-click on the desktop and go to New>Folder. Name the Folder Paint, and move all the files just made into it except MSPAINT... Right-Click MSPAINT and select Cut.

Now right-click Start and select Explore
Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Accessories
Delete the file Paint then,
Right-click and Paste MSPAINT.

Let me know how it goes...

Edited by piano9playa5, 24 December 2008 - 01:32 PM.

[Onaipian]

Welcome to Geeks2Go! Let's see if it's a file that's missing or messed up:

Try This:

You can download MS Paint Here:
http://download.micr...-us/paintnt.exe
Save it to Desktop...

Now double-click on paintnt and allow it to finish.
Now you should have 6 new files on your Desktop...

Double-click on MSPAINT and test it out to see if it freezes... If it's no good than you can delete the files..

If it works then do the following to make things neater and replace the one in the start menu:

Right-click on the desktop and go to New>Folder. Name the Folder Paint, and move all the files just made into it except MSPAINT... Right-Click MSPAINT and select Cut.

Now right-click Start and select Explore
Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Accessories
Delete the file Paint then,
Right-click and Paste MSPAINT.

Let me know how it goes...

Edited by piano9playa5, 24 December 2008 - 01:32 PM.

[njay]

Heya

Thanks for the reply.

It didn't work, unfortunately. And besides that, it was an older version of paint (NT, if I'm correct? Mine came with XP, which is 5.1 -- but there's not much different besides visual appearance I think)

My whole computer seems a bit sluggish after the whole ordeal. The memory seems fine but the CPU goes up to 60~70 and stays up there more often than I'd like. "Inactive System processes" seems to be the major culprit, after Firefox... Of course that's not really getting me anywhere; what the [bleep] are they and how could I make sure nothing redundant is running?

Strange that this mostly only affects MSPaint though!

[Neil Jones]

IMO, forget Paint, it's very lacklustre and hasn't changed much since the days of Windows 95.
Paint.net is far superior - http://getpaint.net is the web address.

[njay]

Oh but that isn't the problem -- I have far better graphics programs.
I use paint to get quick ideas out of my head and onto virtual paper, or to make sketches. It's ideal for that because it's simple and fires up quickly. What worries me is that it stops functioning. I've got the feeling that if I get to the root of the problem, the computer as a whole might start performing better.

[Onaipian]

You said this all started when you had a spyware problem, yes? My advice would be to go back to the start and see if there's anything remaining.. If the problem persists or the system is already clean, come back here and we'll give it another shot...

Please go to the malware forum and Start HERE....
70 percent of all problems can be solved here. If at the end of the process you are still having difficulty (and you may not be) then start a new topic in the Malware Removal - HijackThis™ Logs Go Here Forum


Good Luck,
piano9playa5

[njay]

I was given the all-clear after the spyware removal, if I recall correctly, and checking the Hijack This scan, I can identify every item on the list as something that's supposed to be on my computer.

Thanks for the help, again

[Onaipian]

I was given the all-clear after the spyware removal, if I recall correctly, and checking the Hijack This scan, I can identify every item on the list as something that's supposed to be on my computer.

Thanks for the help, again

Oh! Have you already been helped by a trained malware removal person? I must have misread your first post because I thought that you had removed it on your own... HJT doesn't show everything. Other tools are needed to take a deeper look.

Anyways:

Please go to Start > Run and copy and paste the following:
%systemroot%\System32\mspaint.exe
and click Ok

I'm thinking that you have the wrong shortcut to Paint in Accessories. If this works, we'll fix it...

Edited by piano9playa5, 25 December 2008 - 12:15 PM.

[njay]

Doing that launches MS Paint, slow and lagging as before. What was it supposed to do?

[Onaipian]

It was supposed to do that... but I was hoping it wouldn't freeze... I'll explain:

There are two Paints... One is for a repair install of Windows XP. This one freezes no matter what computer it's on...
The other is the file that we use. The file in accessories is a shortcut of this one...

That was a test to see if the file in accessories was the right shortcut... I was hoping that the shortcut would be to the wrong file, and the one we use, doesn't freeze... but the test failed...

Before I give you further instruction, I am going to check in with one of my teachers to make sure it's okay..

Edited by piano9playa5, 26 December 2008 - 01:57 PM.

[Onaipian]

Okay... let's take a deeper look...

Please go to Start > Run and copy and paste the following into it:
regedit /e C:\look.txt HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint

Press Ok...
After that, please open C:\look.txt and copy and paste the whole thing here in your reply...

NOTE: You can open look.txt by going to Start > Run and typing:
C:\look.txt
and pressing Ok

Edited by piano9playa5, 27 December 2008 - 03:01 PM.

[njay]

I'll check that out in Febuary -- I'm in the US now, and I'll be there till then. Hope the topic doesn't disappear!

In any case, thank you for your help so far

[Onaipian]

Just give me a PM when you get back... Have fun!

[Spike2009usa]

Hey! I've got the same problem with Paint. That's what I have. I have no idea what that means, but hope you can help me.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint\Recent File List]
"File1"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\w&t\\2011-02-22\\2-22-2011 9-11-36 PM_0001.jpg"
"File2"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\2-10-2011 1-25-11 PM_0002.jpg"
"File3"="D:\\Documents\\W&T2011\\2011-02-10\\2-10-2011 1-25-11 PM_0002.jpg"
"File4"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\2011-02-10\\2-10-2011 1-27-23 PM_0003.jpg"
"File5"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\2011-02-10\\2-10-2011 1-25-11 PM_0002.jpg"
"File6"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\2011-02-10\\2-10-2011 1-19-15 PM_0001.jpg"
"File7"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\JO 2011.JPG"
"File8"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\справка 2.jpg"
"File9"="C:\\Users\\Sergey\\Desktop\\справка 1.jpg"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint\Recovery]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint\Ribbon]
"QatItems"="<siq:customUI xmlns:siq=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2009/ribbon/qat\"><siq:ribbon minimized=\"false\"><siq:qat position=\"0\"><siq:sharedControls><siq:control idQ=\"siq:20002\" visible=\"false\" argument=\"0\"/><siq:control idQ=\"siq:20003\" visible=\"false\" argument=\"0\"/><siq:control idQ=\"siq:20004\" visible=\"true\" argument=\"0\"/><siq:control idQ=\"siq:20014\" visible=\"false\" argument=\"0\"/><siq:control idQ=\"siq:20017\" visible=\"false\" argument=\"0\"/><siq:control idQ=\"siq:20019\" visible=\"false\" argument=\"0\"/><siq:control idQ=\"siq:31001\" visible=\"true\" argument=\"0\"/><siq:control idQ=\"siq:31002\" visible=\"true\" argument=\"0\"/></siq:sharedControls></siq:qat></siq:ribbon></siq:customUI>"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint\Settings]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint\Text]
"ShowTextTool"=dword:00000001
"PointSize"=dword:00000048
"PositionX"=dword:00000000
"PositionY"=dword:00000000
"Bold"=dword:00000001
"Underline"=dword:00000000
"Italic"=dword:00000000
"Strikeout"=dword:00000000
"TextPen"=dword:00000000
"TypeFaceName"="Arial"
"CharSet"=dword:000000cc

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Paint\View]
"WindowPlacement"=hex:2c,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,\
ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,4f,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,cf,02,00,00
"ShowThumbnail"=dword:00000000
"BMPWidth"=dword:00000000
"BMPHeight"=dword:00000000
"ThumbXPos"=dword:00000000
"ThumbYPos"=dword:00000000
"ThumbWidth"=dword:00000000
"ThumbHeight"=dword:00000000
"UnitSetting"=dword:00000000
"ShowRulers"=dword:00000000
"ShowGrid"=dword:00000000
"ShowStatusBar"=dword:00000001
"NoStretching"=dword:00000000
"SnapToGrid"=dword:00000000
"GridExtent"=dword:00000001