How to fix "Windows could not find %filename%" error message

How to get rid of the message:

"Windows could not find %filename%. Check that the name was entered correctly and try again. To search for a file, click the "Start" button, and then select "Find."

on Windows boot?

Complete removal instructions

This is just an example. Your error message may look different.

• Do you see this error message every time your computer boots up?
• Does this error constantly appear and annoy you?
• Do you want to get rid of her once and forever?

Get rid of this error - Security Stronghold has developed a solution for your problem!

Here you will find fast and complete solution error that appears when the system boots - "Windows could not find %filename%..."

Description of the problem:

What is %filename%?

%Filename% is a system process that does not need to be stopped. Please note: the file %filename% is required for the normal operation of the most important applications. Please note that there are many virus programs that try to disguise their files as %filename% - such files should be removed immediately.

Why does the error message "Windows could not find %filename%..." appear when Windows boots?

Reason 1: There is a virus or trojan on your computer.

Reason 2: Your antivirus deleted the file %filename% because your computer was infected with virus programs.

Reason 3: This error message is false, and some malware is capable of deceiving you this way.

How to solve the error message at boot "Windows could not find %filename%. Check that the name was entered correctly and try again. To search for a file, click the "Start" button, and then select "Find."?

Fast decision:

How to manually resolve the "Windows could not find %filename%..." error? For advanced users only

This problem can be solved by manually deleting all registry entries and files associated with this program, as well as deleting the program from the startup list and unregistering the associated DLLs. In addition, lost DLLs can be restored separately if they are infected with the Iddono virus. In order to eliminate this threat, you should:

1. Stop the processes and delete the corresponding files associated with the file %filename%.

If these files cannot be deleted when Windows starts in Normal Mode, or the files are created again, boot the computer into Safe Mode and try deleting again. If you don't see all of these files, then they are hidden. You need special software that can remove these hidden files.

2. Use the autoload list editing programs HijackThis or Autoruns to detect and remove all registry entries associated with the file %filename%.

3. If %filename% is a corrupted Windows operating system file, you should repair it using the sfc.exe system utility.

Personal assistance

If you are not sure which solution to choose or if you would like us to help you with a problem with an error message "Windows could not find %filename%...", just write a letter in with the subject "Problem: Windows could not be found". We will solve your problem in less than 24 hours.

From time to time, our computers give out various errors: any programs or files stop opening, the reboot mode turns on by itself, and other problems arise. In this article, I will explain why the message “Cannot find (file)” sometimes appears on the computer screen. Check if the name is correct and try again”, and what to do to solve this problem.

Why can't find the file

Let's see why a message is displayed on the screen of our computer that the file cannot be found and we need to check the name. The system indicates in parentheses the path to the file that cannot be found and advises us to check if the name is correct and try again.

Users agree that this problem is caused by the operation of the antivirus. More precisely, the virus itself, traces of which were found, and the file infected by it was deleted or moved to quarantine. Also, the error appears when the program is installed or uninstalled incorrectly. Of course, you can always reinstall Windows, but this is an extreme measure, because no one wants to demolish working programs. Therefore, we will first apply less categorical measures - we will consider various types of files and determine ways to fix the error.

Solving the problem when it is impossible to open exe-files

There are several ways to solve the problem of opening exe files. Let's consider them in order.

Software reinstallation

If the file is deleted by an antivirus program, then there is no need to pull it out of storage, it was not in vain that it was moved there. Even if we can get it out of there, it's already damaged and won't be able to function properly.

In this case, the output is a complete uninstallation and installation of a program that cannot start. It is best to remove software not through standard Windows tools, but with the help of special software - Revo Uninstaller or AIDA64. They not only uninstall the problematic program, but also “clean up” all unnecessary residual files.

Changing Steam Settings

It happens that the message about not being able to open a certain exe file "Cannot be found ... Please check if the name is correct and try again" appears when you start the game. In this case, we apply the following algorithm of actions:

• Right-click on the Steam folder and select "Properties";
• go to the "Security" tab;
• in the first window "Groups or users" select the line "Users";
• if for some reason this line is missing, then just below click “Edit” and in the next window “Add”;

• in the “Enter the names of the selected objects” box, enter the username and click “Check Names” (you can take the name from the “Administrators” line or use the guest name registered on this PC);

• after successfully verifying the name, click on OK;
• make sure that for the selected user all the “Allow” items are ticked and click OK;

• We wait until the end of entering all the changes made and restart the game.

Registry Editor and Task Manager to the rescue

1. You can also try this method. Right-click on Start (in Windows 10) and look for the “Run” line.
2. Enter regedit. The Registry Editor opens.
3. We pass the following path - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run - look for the problem line here and delete it.

It may also help to disable the startup of the application that is getting the "Cannot find (file)" error. Open the Task Manager (in the Start button), LMB select the desired program, then right-click on it and select “Disable”.

Solve the problem with opening Excel

If you can’t open an Excel workbook and you get a message that it can’t find (file) - you need to check if the name is correct and try again, then you need to do the following. Since the cause of the error in this case may be the prohibition of accepting DDE requests from other applications, it must be removed. To do this, uncheck the box “Ignore DDE requests from other applications”. In Excel 2007, this string is in the advanced options in the Microsoft Office button. In Excel 2003 and older, in the General Options on the Tools menu.

Error in Local Group Policy Editor

In the process of activity, we may encounter the fact that when starting the Local Group Policy Editor, a window appears with a message that the gpedit.msc file cannot be found. We are not in a hurry to look for this file on our computer, but we remember or look at which version of Windows is installed on the PC. If basic or home - they simply do not provide an LGP editor.

In this case, we use two methods:

• we are looking for another way where we do not need editor functions (they make it easier to manage system settings by making changes to the registry);
• we reinstall the OS to a corporate, professional and other version that has a narrow specialization.

We have examined the main ways to solve the problem that occurs when Windows cannot find the file you need. I hope that this information will help anyone who encounters a similar error.

Hello, now we are going to talk about the error Windows Script Host "The specified file cannot be found", which occurs in Windows operating systems, and we will also analyze the causes of this error and what needs to be done so that such errors do not appear in the future.

To make it immediately clear what errors we are going to talk about now, let's look at the window with this error.

The name and path to the script file can be different, it all depends on the developer's imagination, the script name can be a simple, incomprehensible set of letters or disguised as a system file so that you think that it is, in this case it is - "C:\ProgramData\SystemService.vbs". The operating system in this case, most likely, loads normally, but it happens that a similar error appears during the loading of the operating system and that's it, the desktop does not start. This applies to errors such as - "Cannot find script file C:\Windows\run.vbs".

Today I will show you how to resolve the error in both cases. But first, let's talk about the causes of these errors.

Causes of Windows Script Host Error "The specified file cannot be found"

From the information that is displayed in the error window, we understand that the system is trying to run some WSH script ( Windows Script Host), you can read about what it is in the material - “The basics of the JScript language - writing WSH scripts". At the same time, the system cannot find it, which means that it was deleted, moved, in general, it does not exist. Now the questions arise, what is this script for? And who removed it?

The fact that this script no longer exists is actually not bad, since this script is part of a virus that was on your system, most likely it was removed by the antivirus program. You are to blame for the fact that the virus entered the system, since such viruses infect the computer after certain actions of yours, for example, you downloaded music in exe format and launched this file or other similar actions that may endanger your computer ( visiting dubious sites and downloading the same data).

Note! There are other reasons for the appearance of Windows Script Host errors, but they are less common, in this article we are talking about errors associated with malicious scripts.

What should I do to prevent such errors from appearing?

Since we found out that such an error is a consequence of the presence of a virus in the system, the steps that must be taken to prevent such errors from appearing are related to preventing viruses from infecting the computer.

What is needed for this:

• The presence of an anti-virus program with up-to-date databases, i.e. it must be constantly updated. It is also necessary to periodically run a full scan of the computer for viruses. If you do not want to pay for an antivirus, you can use free options, they are actually not so bad for a home computer. A few years ago, in the article “Which antivirus should I install on my home computer? » I reviewed various antivirus solutions and presented a list of products that deserve attention, based on ratings, reviews and my own experience with antiviruses, so if anyone is interested in this information, you can read it;
• In most cases, the computer is operated by an account with administrator rights. But this is wrong, since administrator rights are needed only to perform administrative tasks, in some cases it may not be very convenient for you, but most viruses need administrator rights in order to do what they were designed for. And if you work with administrator rights, then these are ideal conditions for viruses, since they can easily install something, change system settings, and so on. Therefore, it is recommended to work on behalf of the user account, and use administrator rights if necessary ( You just need to create a separate user account and work on its behalf);
• You should not visit dubious sites, download files whose format does not correspond to their purpose, for example, as I already said music in exe format, as you understand, there can be no audio files in this format. This also applies to games, i.e. no need to download games from unverified sources. In other words, this point means to be a little more careful when using the Internet and trying to download some data.

If you perform at least the above steps, then the virus will have much fewer opportunities to infect your computer, and, accordingly, the errors that we are considering in this article will not appear.

Fix error when desktop is available

If your system boots up and then an error appears, i.e. You see the desktop and the start menu, then most likely the script is called by the Windows Task Scheduler. For example, the error "Cannot find the script file C:\ProgramData\SystemService.vbs" is the result of a virus that just used the scheduler to run the script. There are other ways to launch such malicious scripts, such as autoload and group policies, but they are less common, probably no one puts their malicious programs or scripts into autoload now.

So, in order to fix the error, we need to find out how the script starts, as I said, we start looking in the task scheduler. To do this, run it, click " Start menu -> in the search we write Task Scheduler»

Then we have a little complication, we need to find the task that ran the script and delete it. You do not need to delete everything, so before deleting, make sure that on the tab " Actions» in the program launch line, exactly the path that the error shows us is indicated, i.e. in our case it is "C:\ProgramData\SystemService.vbs".

I advise you to immediately start the search by viewing the list of active tasks and the history of the launch of these tasks. If the log of all tasks is turned off, then turn it on and reboot, then after the error appears, go back to the scheduler, where you can see the name of the last completed tasks.

The task can be located in a separate section, and this section can be disguised as a system one, but not quite, for example, the “Windows” section, as you can see, there is an error in the name (two letters s), so check this directory right away.

After you have found the desired task or tasks, you can safely delete it, then reboot, after which the error should disappear.

If you did not find the task, then you can do the steps that are described below (i.e. check the registry).

Troubleshooting the error when the desktop does not start

In this case, you turn on the computer, and you get an error, while you do not see the desktop. These errors include the error - "Cannot find the script file C:\Windows\run.vbs".

In this case, the virus worked with the registry, namely, it changed the system startup parameters.

In order to resolve this error, you need to run the Registry Editor and restore the default settings. Let's start the desktop first, for this:

1. Press the key combination ctrl + alt + del;
2. Select the item " Launch Task Manager»;
3. In the menu press " File -> New Task (Run...)»;
4. In the open field, enter " explorer.exe».

After that, the desktop will start.

Now we start the registry editor. To do this, press " Start -> search for regedit».

Then we find the section

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon for 32 bit systems

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows for 64 bit.

And check the settings Shell And userinit. Their values ​​should be "explorer.exe" and "C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe," respectively.

If the values ​​are different, change them to the default values, to do this, simply call the parameter change window ( double click or right click edit) and enter the desired value. Then reboot and the error should be gone.

That's all for me, if you encountered this kind of error and fixed it in some other way, share the solution with others in the comments. Bye!