I’m seeing the exact same thing as this person on my computer.
I am working on a computer (XP-Pro) that comes up with the following message every time it is booted.
“There is a file or folder on your computer called “C:\PROGRAM” which could cause certain applications to not function correctly. Renaming it to “C:\PROGRAM1″ would solve this problem. Would you like to rename it
now?”The options are “rename” and “ignore”. She has been picking “ignore” each time and doesn’t seem to be having any problems in Windows. She has no “C:\PROGRAM” folder. She runs Norton Antivirus 2003 and her virus definitions are up to date. See the error message at http://www.mewnlite.com/error.jpg
I think the “File Name Warning” title on the window looks a little phony. Does this look familiar to anyone?
What would be your recommendations?
Source: Need help with startup error - technology support
But I’m using Windows XP Home. I wonder where it’s from?
I don’t have a C:\program folder, but there is a 24 byte file called program (no extension). I wonder where it came from? Opening it in a text editor shows this:
Name: Description:
No idea where it’s from.
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Jah, it’s a Windows bug when a call “%systemroot%\program files\anything” is made without the quotes. There’s tons of posts on the net about it. It’ll screw up all kinds of things and it’s the devil to find it if the dialog box doesn’t pop up. For one thing it broke my file search function in explorer as long as the file was present on the system root. I wrote a batch file that just deletes it and set Win.ini to activate the batch on boot. You could do the same with a login script or whatever. Problem solved.
Funny thing, there are a lot of posts about this but MICROSHAFT doesn’t have a thing in the MS KB about it. Not even the error dialog.
Got the same problem, file was created by an error dump from a demo I downloaded which terminally crashed so I assume it´s only a Microsoft cleanup routine although as many has mentioned with a rather dodgy and non user friendly explaination. I checked the file content in Notepad and deleted the file. If you´re unsure what´s in the file open it in Notepad and have a peek before deleting or renaming it.
I had the same error. Once I opened the file, I saw ASCII text that I recognized as being from a molecular modeling experiment I ran the day before. I agree with the last few posts - the appearance of the “c:\program” file is due to sloppy command line use sticking something there. This might explain why some people are reporting seeing it after installing a program, but also when they haven’t (the program probably had a sloppy bit of scripting, or if you were working in a command prompt window, maybe you did.) When I check the processID for the message box it’s the same process as Explorer.exe - so yeah, it’s some kind of Windows internal check…
Yep, the goof up is on Windows’ part. I’d run different softwares that are known to be safe over an extensive period of time with this message popping up occasionally. One could view the “Program” file with any text editor and see that there is nothing important. Just choose ignore (or rename, doesn’t matter) and delete the file.