Regedit opens with "Open With" box

When I goto 'run' and type 'regedit' it opens a "open with" dialog box. If I type 'regedit.exe' it runs regedit. The file is in its right place (c:\windows) and has not been modified.

No other regedit files are located on the drive apart from regedt32 which works fine. This is on winxp sp2/3 computers on a network. No viruses and spyware found.

The policies show regedit is enabled and I have admin rights to box and network.

I can assume this might have something to do with the registry that maybe spyware has corrupted in the past. But like I said, all is clean now.

Also, if I run regedit from the cmd prompt it runs fine. How can I get regedit to work by just typing regedit in the run box?? Any ideas?

click here then on the page click Security from the left menu.. and on the right column download the script that sorts out regedit.

That did not work. The 'disableregistrytools' is set to '0'. But I type regedit.exe and it works. It's only when I type regedit.

Just a thought, but do a search for regedit in the entire pc. I'm curious if maybe there is another file that's named regedit for some reason that's being accessed.

That and the exe association is screwed up... if you launch any other exe using the run dialogue, do you get the same problem?

One of the common symptoms of various pieces of malware is an inability to open Regedit and/or Task Manager. If your machine shows other symptoms consistent with a possible infection, you might have a pest to swat.

Good call SL I didn't even consider the possibility it was that.