Help! Certain Apps Won’t Open After Downloading Something Suspicious

If you want to be completely sure that any malware is gone, you might have to consider wiping your drives and doing a full reinstall of your operating system. It’s a hassle, but it’s the safest way to ensure everything’s clean. Don't forget to change all your passwords to something strong and unique for each site you use, and enable MFA wherever possible. And definitely avoid downloading sketchy software in the future!

After reinstalling Windows, if you're still having trouble with certain apps not loading, it could be a permissions issue or something still residual from the previous installation. Make sure you've installed all the latest updates for Windows and check the app permissions in Windows settings. If problems persist, a clean slate approach might still be your best bet!

I wouldn’t put much faith in running malware scans anymore; if your scanner missed something before, it likely will again. The best course of action is to do a clean wipe of your PC and install Windows fresh. That’ll eliminate any lingering malware issues. After you’re set up again, make sure to have a good antivirus installed to protect against future threats.

It sounds like you might have picked up some malware when you downloaded that sketchy file. I'd recommend running a full system scan with Microsoft Defender to check for any threats. After quarantining or removing anything it finds, restart your computer and do another scan just to be sure. If those apps still don't open afterward, try repairing or reinstalling Steam and Minecraft. Sometimes malware can mess with app files. Running 'sfc /scannow' in Command Prompt can also help repair any corrupted system files. Good luck!