Windows Vista lost icons in control panel

Yesterday when i went to the control panel, there was no icons their. I have not changed and setings or did anything different.Does anyone know
how to get them back.

ka2

 

Ar

Are the icons still clickable so you can still access the settings?

 

I’ve answered this recently, elsewhere, must be a gremlin doing the rounds!

If some items are missing, click the Windows Orb (Start), type regedit, press Enter and navigate to registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don’tload and delete items in the right pane that you want to see in Control Panel.

If Control Panel is not appearing at all, click the Windows Orb (Start), type regedit, press Enter and navigate to registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. In the right pane look for NoControlPanel, right-click it and make its value 0 (zero). If you are denied entry to regedit it’s a classic symptom of infection.

 

there are no icons in the window box, and control panel is not listed
at the top of the window

 

What happens when you type and enter control.exe in the startmenu run line?

 

just a blank window box ( no icons in it )

 

it said to install sp 1, , its allready install on my system (64) will keep on trying.
thanks for your help.

 

Hi ka2,

This is a very frustrating problem to find a fix for. Found google hits range from dead ends to non updated post. I have put together a few links that did seem to have some positive results for other users. Some of these seem to be temporarily, and must be redone when the control panel problem returns. Here they are:

GPEDIT.MSC as well as mskb link that may be vallid
http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-vista/64831-vista-control-panel-opening-blank.html

delete prefetch link for ctrlpnl/ slvc service stop-restart trick
http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/683903.htm

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/restore-missing-items-in-windows-vista-control-panel/

Change view from category to classic via registry:
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-vista-performance/536746.htm

Some have followed the suggestions of restoring to an older restore point, using sfc file repair or a vista dvd system repair. With the exception of "vista dvd system repair, the results of the posters, who reported using these methods ,reported "no change and control panel was still empty or blank ". As far as a vista dvd repair result, posters didn't update posts. I can only guess that they "didn't, wouldn't, couldn't ".

Please remember if you find the cause and a fix for this, to share it by updating your post.

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Have you tried burrWalnut's suggestion, after using the precaution of backing up those hkeys first?

You do know that the most of the *.cpl's can be run or opened from the runline or a shortcut don't you?

 

I finaly had to restore this computer to an older date to get my icons back, every thing right now is back to normal. Thanks for all of your help on this problem

 

Hi ka2,

So, an older system restore point worked for you, huh. I'm glad to see you've found your fix and perhaps have saved another person who is or may suffer from the same problem. Thank you very much for taking the time to come back and share your fix.

Out of curiosity, do have any idea what may have caused the problem in the first place, based on your dated restore point? Did event viewer have any odd events noted that may add a clue?

 

on oct 9 i installed a program called eusing free registry cleaner on the 10
of oct i started to have problems with this computer event viewer list this program as a spyware/malware. i have 10 listings of this, have since un-installed this program and the computer is runing fine