Add/Remove Programs applet opens Notepad

appwiz.cpl comes with a clean install of Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional. appwiz.cpl is located in "C:\WINNT\system32\". Check to see that this file is indeed missing from the folder.

Check registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load
Present? Delete the value.

You should also be able to extract the file from your installation disk's .cab file. But, I can't find the name of the one you need.

Symantec reports this as Trojan.Billrus.Texto
The Trojan deletes the following files, and replaces them with copies of itself: Attrib.exe, Edit.com, Format.com, Deltree.exe, Ed.cab, Mscdex.exe, Appwiz.cpl, Attrib.com, and Deltree.com.

Good luck!

have triied reinstalling service pack 4 again?
It might help straighten it out.

Let's try the most obvious first. If your other Control Apps work as expected then do a search in your windows directory for appwiz.cpl. There should be one in the system32 directory and also one in your i386 directory. If not, check for appwiz.*. You might have had a malicious program change the name to appwiz.txt or appwiz.cpl.txt (or something similar) to prevent you from adding/removing programs. If you find the appwiz file named incorrectly, rename it to the proper name (in both places). If this is the case you should also try and find out what caused it. Run a virus scan and spyware scan.

You could also try clicking Start->Run and then typing in "control.exe appwiz.cpl" (no quotes) to see if the proper applet starts. It appears that something has changed the association of that particular applet to notepad.exe instead of control.exe as is the normal case. If this is so, then reassociate appwiz.cpl to control.exe instead.

Cheers,

RW

Make sure the.cpl file extension is not associated with Notepad (Explorer, Tools, Folder Options File Types, CPL) and reassociate it with Control panel:
Action: cplopen
Appl: rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL %1,%*