Multiple problems including control panel issues

My friend asked me to look at his computer as it was having problems, and I am baffled as to how to go about this. I’m planning to reinstall windows, but the disk is damaged and in the mean time I would like to get it working at some level.

Here is what I know so far.

The Add Remove Control Panel does nothing when it is clicked on. The same is true for the Network Properties. The other oddity is that there are now three icons in the Control Panel folder that have a generic icon and no title. A possibility for these "ghost" icons is missing control panels. I know the "Security Center" control panel is missing, I’m not certain that if there are any others missing.

The other Controls seem to work, however after opening and then closing the mouse Panel, a "Run a DLL as an APP has encountered a problem and needs to close" window opens.

I have run SpyBot Search and Destroy, as well as fully updated AVG and done a full system scan. No major items were detected on either.

I have found similar problems on varies systems on google, but nothing that fits the description exactly. Any help would be appreciated.

Josh

 

This isn't quite your problem but have a look at this registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don’tload

Any items listed in the right pane will not show in Control Panel. If there are any you want to be shown, just delete them from the right pane.

It is prudent to create a system restore point before deleting any keys just in case you have a problem.