"Windows cannot find" errors: How to solve them?

In a hurry?

If you simply want to get rid of "Windows Cannot Find" error message once and forever and don't want to digg into deep tech, then download Windows Cannot Find Fix Wizard here, and see how it solves your problem fast and automatically.

Want to know the roots of this problem? Then read on.

Reasons of "Windows cannot find" error message

There are three common reasons of why you see "Windows cannot find" error message like on the picture above. These reasons are not connected with the place and situation where you see them. In other words, it doesn't matter if you see "Windows cannot find somefile.exe" on Windows startup, or when you try opening Control Panel, or in some other case. Anyway, the reason is one of the following:

1. The file mentioned in the error message is really absent and Windows has some need of it.
2. The file is where it should be, but the reference to it (for example, path written in some registry key) is corrupted.
3. There is no problems with such file at all, simply some malicious program tries to trick you this way.

Think everything is that simple? Unfortunately, no.

For example:

1. If the file mentioned in "Windows cannot find" error message is really absent, this can mean that some virus or evil fortune deleted system-critical service, BUT this can also mean that your antivirus has deleted some virus that pretended itself to be legal file, and now Windows can't fidn the file that it doesn't need in fact - it can't find deleted virus! The most common text of such error message is "Windows cnanot find rundll32.exe" or "Windows cnanot find rundll.exe", but may also happen with "Windows cnanot find msconfig.exe" and a lot of others.
2. The same fork can happen with broken reference to file: this can be both legal reference (for example, to spoolsv.exe file which is Printer Spooler service which makes printing possible in Windows) or to malicious file which itself was deleted by your antivirus.
3. "Windows cannot find" find error message aften appears for files that both are system-critical (like rund32.dll mentioned above) and have malicious "siblings" with the same name. In such case it is extremely difficult even for an expert to determine whether the "Windows cannot find" error message tells you of something legal and "must have", or of something really malicious with the same name.
4. To make things even worse, "Windows cannot find" error message can appear when some malicious program incorrectly attaches itself to common file extension as file format handler. For example, it is very easy for malicious program to change some registry key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and make Windows run this program automatically when you double-click on a file with .exe or .vbs extension. This means that you will run virus and receive an errror message each time when you try to run any program on your computer! This makes it literally unusable.

How to solve "Windows cannot find" error message manually?

So you faced "Windows cannot find" error message. What should you do now? First of all, ask yourself is you are computer literate enough to change registry entries and system files. If you feel uncomfortable doing so, then download Windows Cannot Find Fix Wizard which will quickly and easily resolve your problem in automated way.

Whant to take everything under your own control? Ok, let's try solving the problem manually, but be advertised that this can lead to unpredictable results.

Step 1: Let's prepare for getting rid of "Windows cannot find" error message

First of all, backup your registry. The good idea is to create Windows Restore Point. This can save your operating system in case of emergency.

Open Regedit and Msconfig programs. We'll need them both. If infection got deep, I recommend you searching for and downloading a program called Autoruns, which shows and allows to disable much more autorun entries than standard Msconfig.

Step 2: Searching for the file Windows cannot find ourselves

Remember the name of file from "Windows cannot find" dialog. The first question we should ask ourselves is whether this is legal Windows file (or some needed file) or whether this is a malicious lookalike.

Here is the short list of files which are commonly missing and which are legal Windows files if situated in Windows\System32 folder or one of its subfolders:

• svchost.exe
• spoolsv.exe
• rundll32.exe
• regsvr.exe
• msconfig.exe

And here is the list of files that are not legal Windows files, which are, in fact, malicious files, but look like the legal ones:

• schost.exe
• ssvchost.exe
• svch0st.exe (notice zero instead of letter)
• spoolsv32.exe
• rundll.exe (such file really existed on Windows 9x, but should not exist on newer version of Windows, otherwise it is malicious)
• run32dll.exe

There are, of course, a lot of other possible malicious file names that resemble legal files. Just turn on your imagination and use common sense to determine whether you faced with legal file or with somethign malicious in your "Windows cannot find" error message.

Step 3: Restoring legal files that Windows cannot find

If Windows is missing some really legal and system-critical file, you can restore it by executing the following command in command prompt window:

sfc.exe /scannow

This command may require you to insert original CD or DVD from which you installed Windows.

Step 4: Examining startup items and services

The next step in fixing "Windows cannot find" problem is to find errorneous references to files from registry, start items and services. Download the program called HijackThis here which will scan and show you all startup items and services on your computer.

Examine the log file created by HijackThis and notice "(file missing)" suffixes near some of the items. Put checks into checkboxes of the items which have "file missing" text at the end of their ddescription and click on Fix button.

This will delete some of the registry entries which contain errorneous references to programs and services that should be started automatically and will likely remove "Windows cannot find" error message caused by this reason.

Step 5: Searching for the references to Windows cannot find insde the whole registry.

Important: This step will require much more common sence than the previous ones.

If after performing every above mentioned step you still see "Windows cannot find file" error message, than you still have some broken reference to the file in your registry (or you have a virus - see below).

Open Regedit, press F3 key and enter the name of the file Windows thinks to be missing exactly as it appears in "Windows cannot find" message box. Then click on Search button.

You will probaly find a lot of references to that file. Carefully examine each of them. If you see that some reference (key value) resembles path to an executable file, check if it is correct. If it is not correct, change the value of the found registry key to the correct path.

Pay attention to variables that Windows should replace with real part of path, like the ones pointing to Windows and System32 folders. I mean %systemfolder% and %windowsfolder% and other variables like these. The core word here is "should". When we talk of Windows that should replace them with correct pathes we can't say "must", as the values of these variables are stored in several places - in environmantal variables, in registry, in some ini files. Different values of the same variable defined in differen sources can overlap each other, and the path you specified with such variable will become broken. So remove such variables and replace them with corresponding real pathes in every place you meet them during your research.

Step 6: Getting rid of viruses

We made a long way as of now, but it can happan that even after it is completed your "Windows cannot find" error message still disturbs you. This may mean only one thing: you have some terrible (and active!) virus in your system. The only way to get rid of it is to use proven anti virus and anti spyware. I recommend you trying True Sword if you still see "Windows cannot find" error message. Well, you may call me biased here, as I took part in the development of this program, but I can tell you that it is really excelelnt and, as far as I know from our support team, helped thousands of people in solving their problems liek the one you are having now.

So just give it a try - and leave your opinion in Comments below.

I hope your problems with "Windows cannot find" error are solved now. If not - leave Comment on this page and I'll try to help you. But first be sure to try everythign described above, including Windows Cannot Find Fix Wizard and True Sword.

External resources

Good external sources of information about "Windows cannot find" error messages

Windows Cannot Find Errors Portal

Squidoo Lens on Windows Cannot Find errors

Fixing Windows Cannot Find errors Hub Page

What Facebook knows about Windows Cannot Find error

Descriptions of some particular types of the error message

Windows cannot find rundll.exe

Windows cannot find spoolsv32.exe

Windows cannot find svchost.exe

Windows cannot find regsvr.exe

Windows cannot find taskmgr.exe

Windows cannot find rundll32.exe

Windows cannot find winupdate.exe

Windows cannot find idlist.exe

Windows cannot find msconfig.exe

Windows cannot find null.exe

Windows cannot find c program

Windows cannot find the network path