crlium.exe

can anyone tell me what "crlium.exe, is used for, my computer is missing it and i can't do anything with it till it finds this file

Don't recognize that one. Which OS and what kind of error that's being generated?

its comming up on an old win 95 system, comes up when i first start the computer, i get an error. This program is needed for opening files of type application 'Application'.

1. I am not aware of any program that is "required" to open files of the type application. An application is an application just like crlium.exe is an application.....

2. The fact that crlium.exe cannot be found by google indicates that it isn't a standard file.

3. If it isn't a standard file and your apps won't run because crlium.exe is missing indicates some form of malware that insinuates itself into the system and runs itself every time an app is opened thus ensuring it's continued existence and is not an uncommon MO for malware writers.

Format and reinstall after backing up your data only.

Can you boot into safe mode? If not you will have difficulty backing up from within windows.

I am surprised that Google didn't come up with anything, not even a virus description.

If you can get into safe mode then you might take a look in the Win.ini file to see if there is an entry overriding your Registry associations:

http://home.earthlink.net/~leetutor/...ps/prevent.htm

The safest option is reformat and reinstall as we have no idea of what exactly has happened and the extent of the damage. However, if you can get it to boot into normal mode at least the backing up won't be so much of a strain on the eyes :)

Good luck

It can be a renamed trojan application that inserts itself into the win.ini or boot.ini on the run line. If that's the case look up on Symantec information about removing trojans, my best guess would be something along the lines of Sub7.

So boot with a bootdisk and try to see the content of the win.ini and boot.ini files, around the Run lines. It should be something like:

Run=crlium.exe

IIRC... If the registry is infected you might have to download an app from Symantec to remove it, problem is you can't know for sure what trojan it is. But I think removing that line from the .ini would at least allow you to boot.