Hello, everyone!

I know this is hardly a technical help forum, but I didn't know where else to turn to. I'm running a Windows 7 PC and, recently, certain programs have refused to run. First it was Skype, then it was Steam and then it was games using DOSBox. Even some of the games that don't require anything to run (like Trails in the Sky and Railroad Tycoon 3) won't start.

At first, I thought these were individual problems, which is why I also tried handling them individually (i.e. I tried doing what people usually do when Skype doesn't work). But then I noticed that a lot of these have the same thing in common: they will show up within the Task Manager, only to terminate moments later. The only exception is Skype, which continued to linger on, though the program itself doesn't open.

I've tried the usual solutions, such as updating drivers and reinstalling the programs, but it hasn't helped any. Any ideas you might have would be greatly appreciated.

usual things I'll check:

1: running as admin and the compatability modes
2: check firewall / firewall program control and / or antivirus settings in case its been flagged for some reason
3: some programs Ive got will only run properly whan added to the list of DEP exceptions

and of course

4: restart the computer

if none of those work, i'd definately give a good antivirus scan and see if that turns up anything

Did you maybe install ZoneAlarm?

Here's my checklist when that happens to me.

1. Create a exception for the program in my firewall.

2. Create a exception for the program in my antivirus.

3. Check if some sneaky windows security feature is On and if so Off it.

4. Run Malwarebytes.

One of those things have so far helped me every time.

True if there's one particular program I have problems with it might not help but if it's several that's what have fixed it for me.

Steam and DOSBox games do run if I have the computer in Safe Mode. So there has to be some background function which is causing this.

It's not the antivirus, though. I've tried turning it off and it did nothing.

You can't completely turn off some new antivirus programs. The only way to make sure they're not running if you're not very tech savvy is to uninstall them. Very annoying to say the least.

As it turns out, all of this could have been avoided had I been more careful with basic troubleshooting. Once I actually uninstalled and installed the latest version of the video drivers manually instead of relying on the "Update Driver" option within the Device Manager, everything started to work fine again. So yes, another pointless troubleshooting thread which could have been easily avoided. -_-

Oh well, my gratitudes to everyone who offered suggestions. I appreciate the help offered.

Of course!, the obvious solution :P

So who gets the cookie? This is the internet so a cookie or cake is required.

Tarm, you get a cookie cake for making the funniest post! =P

Thank you! :)