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Control Panel items not opening

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bmd2k3

Technical User
Feb 22, 2003
54
US
I had to do a reinstall of Win98SE....now when I open the control panel....none of the icons will open. Click 'em and nothing ever happens.

Any ideas ?

Thanks in advance...
-Brian
 
see if notepad.exe will open. If it doesn't then it could be something as simple as the sircam virus. No .exe files will open with sircam.
 
Notepad works fines....as do just about all of the other programs (Word, Excel, IE etc)

What's interesting though is some of the programs with desktop icons don't respond when I click the icon...but do if I go to start/programs etc. SpyBot for example.

Interesting though.....I see Norton Antivirus "running" in the system tray.....when I open a Word/Excel doc I see "requesting" virus scan....I can go into the Norton A/V Configure screen....but I can't Open Norton A/V at all.

-Brian


 
SpyBot actually runs if you go to start/programs.

Scanned for Sircam....none found.

In safe mode all the control panel items seem to function and Norton A/V can be fired up. Scanning complete system for viruses now.


-Brian
 
No viruses found.

When booting in Normal mode...still can not run any of the control panel items or Norton A/V.


-brian
 
Should also add that if I try to Open Printer Properties...that too fails.


-Brian
 
Also....

Start/Shutdown or Start/Restart do not work. Doing a
<cntl><alt><delete> then selecting shutdown does work.


-Brian
 
Sounds like the registry may be corrupted. If possible, boot to a command line session, then run scanreg. It can fix a lot of problems and then rebuild the database to optimize the registry.

Iolair MacWalter
 
Hey Brian,
I have a system that I am trying to fix that has the same problems that you are experiencing. None of the icons in control panel will open. I can't shut down or restart the computer from start menu etc... I was wondering if you had any luck resolving the problem.

Also If it helps you can open control panel icons by going into C:\windows\system and right clicking and selecting Open with Control Panel files with .cpl extension. For example Sysdm.cpl will open System Properties, Appwiz.cpl will open Add/Remove Programs, etc...

Brandon
 
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