Hi all wanted to download and run a small program on Vista. It was a small (115kb .exe) and it downloaded it no problems then it says

"Sorry, no can do, Vista doesn't like these files so you can't run them"

and deletes it from the downloads straight away. The help box is fairly useless and I don't know what settings to change to allow it to run.

Any suggestions?

Change the extension to .com?

Probably not - that's even older than exe.

Can you change the file extension to .mpg (save as) or something. Then when Vista thinks its just a harmless sound file, you can move it where you want and change back to .exe

there is a very strong probability that this will turn into a Vista bashing thread LOL LOL

I'm no expert on Vista but have you tried turning off the User Account Control in Control Panel Security Centre? That was one of the first things I ever did as I found it an infuriating function with its continual asking for permission to continue.

The only other thing I can think of is that quite rightly you are probably logging on with a standard user account. Have you tried running the .exe file whilst logged in as an administrator?

Or is it that the last vestiges of DOS have been taken out of the core?

I have a shrinkwrapped copy of MSDOS 6.22 if that is of any use.

Shaft109 - just looking at your problem again – it seems as though Data Execution Prevention could be shutting down the program you are trying to run. It might be that DEP thinks an attack is underway and is automatically closing down the offending program.

If you really want to run that .exe file, log in on an administrator account then you could try Control Panel→System and Maintenance→System→Advanced System Settings. Then in the Performance section click Settings, then click the Data Execution Prevention tab. Select “Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select”. Click “Add” and follow the instructions to add the executable file you want to open to the list of exceptions.

I haven’t tried this to run a .exe file using this so over to you to see if it works!

I'm no expert on Vista but have you tried turning off the User Account Control in Control Panel Security Centre?


That's what I did to alleviate problems when installing software and no problems since, apart from a couple of old programs that are incompatible with Vista.

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