Notice: These events are based on problems I experience with my own personal computer. The instructions below should not be considered a panacea for this problem. This is a list of the steps I used to repair my computer’s system from the netsh.exe popup. Your situation may be similar, but different. If all else fails, consult a professional computer technician.

If you are one of those who have been trying to fix the annoying netsh.exe popup, this may help.

I am running Windows XP Pro and first encountered this problem around the first week of July 2007. I don’t know if these two are related to the problem, but I downloaded and installed Windows Service Pack 3.

My antivirus program is CA Antivirus 2009 and I have Network Magic installed.

I searched online to find out what the hell netsh.exe was. Was it a virus? No, it’s not! Netsh.exe is part of the Windows XP files.

Now, let’s put this all together!

The problem:

CA quarantines the netsh.exe file as a virus. [False positive reading from the CA antivirus program.]

When CA removed the netsh.exe file, the Network Magic nmctxth.exe file was looking for this file and did not see it for operation.

The result was the annoying netsh.exe pop-up window.

I did a search on my computer and sure enough, netsh.exe was missing.

The solution:

Replace the netsh.exe file in its original location. Since CA removed it, I just had to tell it to put it back.

Note: I checked a computer that did not have this problem and here are the locations of the netsh.exe file.

Here are the steps on how I got CA to restore my netsh.exe.

1. I located my CA Antivirus program by going to my Start button and clicking on it; which opens the menu and button for my CA Antivirus.

Now, your computer may not have it in the same location. From the Start button, you may need to click the All Programs tap to locate it. If you can’t find it there, you should be able to click on My Computer, go to your C: drive, go to the Program Files folder and open it, go to the CA folder and open it, go to CA Internet Security Suite and open it, go to CA Anti-Virus folder and open it, locate the caav icon. Double click on it.

2. Click the Quarantine button, which will show you all the files CA quarantined. There were two netsh.exe locations on my system.

3. Click the first netsh.exe file in the list to highlight it.

4. With the file highlighted, click the Restore tap. This process will restore or put your netsh.exe file back to its original location. You should receive a message that your file has been restored.

5. Repeat this process for the remaining netsh.exe files.

6. You may also receive a note with a box telling CA not to try to quarantine this file again. If so, check that box to prevent CA from re-quarantining the file. Close the antivirus window of your CA.

This process should take care of your netsh.exe popup, it did.

If you know someone with this type of problem, send them this eBook.

Thanks for your time and I hope it helps.