Came across a very strange problem the other day.

I installed a program which relied on a windows system service being run. Every time I re-booted my PC or tried to run the program I receives a message that the service could not run on the local machine. On trying to start the service manually I was again informed of the error.

Despite diligently searching Microsoft's web site for over 2 hours, I was unable to find a resolution of my problem.

Now I am a member of several forums on the Internet, and I quickly posted a plea on them. I received several suggestions, all of which I tried without success.

Finally I received a suggestion from Dean on the Etomite forum. He remembered a similar problem and eventually found that there was a file in his root (C:/) folder called "Program". After deleting that file his system services resumed normal operation.

A quick check revealed no such file. However, some days later I had occasion to check another folder for a hidden system file, and it struck me that the rogue file might also have these attributes set. On checking the root folder and showing hidden and system files, lo and behold, there it was. The file was of zero bytes length but it certainly affected my system as, once deleted, all services resumed as normal and my new program functioned correctly.

Now just where this file came from I cannot imagine. Despite my system being behind a firewall, with full anti virus checking, with adware, spyware and anti Trojan programs running it appears that I must have picked up "something" from the Internet

Just goes to show. You can't be too careful.