Control panel in XP home edition

Problem running control panel in Windows XP home edition on a Toshiba satellite lap top.

Starting control panel from start > control panel, it looks like control panel will flash on the screen and then end. Sometimes it is so fast that I am not sure that it even loads or starts, but I do see the desktop icons flash off and then restore. If you go to My Computer and select control panel from there you get the same results.

If I do a search, all files and folders, look for Control Panel, it is found in my computer. After I have found control panel from the search, it does not matter if I double click it to execute or not, then it will run correct from the start menu.. This fixes the problem until the user does a log off or a reboot.

The Toshiba is rather new, belongs to my daughter, came with windows XP loaded. Neither of us has any experience with XP. Can anyone please tell me what is going on and any ideas on how to fix it.

Thank you,
Gordon

 

If I right-click on control panel, then click open, control panel also flashes and ends, but won't let me into control panel.
Gordon

 

Run:
regedt32

Navigate to:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

See if there is an entry in the right pane: NoControlPanel

If there is, then change the value to 0.

If there isn't, you might try creating one:
NoControlPanel REG_DWORD 0

If this policy has been enabled, I can't imagine why, but this may get access back for you, anyway.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. There was not a NoControlPanel entry, so we added one as suggested. However, it did not fix the problem. Any more ideas? Thanks.

 

Lots of ideas. Now if one of them just works......

Did you get a regular XP CD, or is it a recovery disk?

You can try replacing the .cpl files in system32 with the backups in the dllcache.

Go to Run and type:
copy C:\Windows\system32\dllcache\*.cpl C:\Windows\system32
(assuming your HD is "C ").

I have also heard, but cannot verify, that if the Control Panel is hidden in the Start Menu, access to it is sometimes lost. Try right-clicking the TaskBar, Properties, Start Menu, Customize, Advanced, and be sure that the option to display the CP is enabled.

 

Abraxas,

Thanks for the reply.

My daughter is visiting at our house. She did not bring the XP/Restore CD with her, the laptop came with XP home preloaded, so we do not really know which one came with the laptop.

We can not find a folder named DLLCACHE in C:\windows\system32. Did a search of the laptop searching for DLLCACHE and could not find it anywhere. We attempted the copy command anyway and RUN returned error "windows cannot find 'copy'... ".

Control panel is set to display as a link in the start menu.

Any more ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Gordon

 

If you have the right XP CD, you could do a system file check with it. It will need to have the XP setup files in their standard formats.

Funny about the dllcache. Must be an OEM thing. It's also possible that you don't have hidden folders unhidden. Open My Computer, Tools button, Folder Options, View and see if you have unhidden everything you want to be able to see.

I neglected to mention that the "copy" command has to be run from a command window, Run: cmd, and then the copy command. But if you have no dllcache, the point is moot.

You could still try a System Restore if the Control Panel ever worked and the points are not too far back. In any case, if the CD is a pure recovery CD that restores the computer to the day it was born by formatting and reinstalling, you should save what you can before using it.

 

"It's also possible that you don't have hidden folders unhidden. Open My Computer, Tools button, Folder Options, View and see if you have unhidden everything you want to be able to see. "

Yes, we had system files hidden. I had been looking for a way to check that within XP.
We have enabled (un-hidden) them now, but dllcache still does not exist.

She has only had this laptop for about a month and has never set a restore point, check point, or whatever it is called. Control panel did work correctly two weeks ago. She had used it to install other software. I don't think she really wants to do a restore back to the original setup at this time.

We do have the workaround, or temp fix, to get control panel to work. We can do a search for control panel. After it is found, then it works OK until she logs off. It almost seems that the search is setting up a path or something within control panel that makes it work thereafter until the log off. It makes no sense to me, but it is usable.

She will be returning home this weekend so then she can figure out what she has for a XP CD and run system file checker at that time.

Thank you both very much for the help.
Gordon

 

One of my thoughts was that one of the Control Panel applets was corrupt, causing it to terminate.

Try looking in (sic) Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer and see what it says about system or application errors that might relate to CP. The Control Panel uses explorer.exe so the error may refer to that.

It may be easier if you right-click the items in the left pane of the Event Viewer and clear the log so that you can then try to access CP in one of the ways that fails to see what new error appears in the Event Viewer.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. The event viewer does show the error.

The event viewer shows in the system log an error in service control manager as event 7000. The error properties says the mrtRate service failed to start due to the following error. The system cannot find the file specified.

We are able to get control panel to work by doing a search of my computer for control panel. This seems to tell the PC where the file is located. However, when we reboot or log off, control panel will not work until we repeat the search to let the laptop know where the appropriate file is. This sounds similar to me to the error saying the system cannot find the file specified.

I don't know what an applet is. Does this error suggest we should fix an applet?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

The path shown when I edit it is the minimum you specified without spaces: %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem.

But before I click edit, it is listed as C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;...
Is it a problem that it shows WINDOWS within C:\? Control panel is a folder in My Computer outside of C:\.

If I search within the folder Wbem for control panel, there are no results to display. I can find control panel only if I search My Computer and then it finds it as a system folder. Is my Control Panel system folder in the wrong place?

Thanks for your ideas.

 

We restored the laptop with the help's system restore option to a date when control panel was working and now have it working again. Thanks for all your helpful suggestions!

 

New questions

Now that it is working, I have some questions about restore points. Like what is saved in a restore point? Does it save only the registry entries or does it save some/all system files along with the registry? Where is the restore point point saved? In what folder and what is the file extension type?
In the past I had used Configsafe in Win 98, so I am trying to relate Win XP restore points to Win 98 Configsafe snapshots.

Thanks again for all your help.
Gordon

 

Restore points are saved in a folder inside System Volume Information that you will find in the root of each drive that has restore enabled on it.

Access to this folder will be restricted, so you will need to give yourself permission to open it. Then you can see what it saves (to some degree).

 

Thanks for the information.

There is nothing that I can look at any more. My daughter has headed home and she took her laptop with her. I will send her an email to remind her to to look at this thread. If she ever figures out what caused the problem in the first place, she will reply to this thread to let everybody know.

Thanks again
Gordon

 

These are the files and folders in one of my restore points. It is not easily dissected. The registry is included, the contents of Windows Management Instrumentation, and obviously a lot more cryptic data, shortcuts to logs, etc. Basically a snapshot of the system state.

C:\Documents and Settings\Abraxas\Desktop\RP1\
RestorePointSize
change.log.1
A0000027.CAT
A0000014.cfg
A0000006.CNT
A0000003.dll
A0000007.EXE
A0000011.exe
A0000012.exe
A0000020.exe
A0000021.exe
A0000022.exe
A0000008.HLP
A0000009.INF
A0000002.ini
A0000004.ini
A0000013.ini
A0000025.ini
A0000001.lnk
A0000005.lnk
A0000015.lnk
A0000016.lnk
A0000017.lnk
A0000018.lnk
A0000019.lnk
A0000023.lnk
A0000024.lnk
A0000026.lnk
rp.log
A0000010.nfo
drivetable.txt
C:\Documents and Settings\Abraxas\Desktop\RP1\snapshot\
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-18
_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-19
_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-20
_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-21-1957994488-688789844-1343024091-1003
_REGISTRY_USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-21-1957994488-688789844-1343024091-500
_REGISTRY_USER_USRCLASS_S-1-5-19
_REGISTRY_USER_USRCLASS_S-1-5-20
_REGISTRY_USER_USRCLASS_S-1-5-21-1957994488-688789844-1343024091-1003
_REGISTRY_USER_USRCLASS_S-1-5-21-1957994488-688789844-1343024091-500
ComDb.Dat
_REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
domain.txt
C:\Documents and Settings\Abraxas\Desktop\RP1\snapshot\Repository\
$WinMgmt.CFG
C:\Documents and Settings\Abraxas\Desktop\RP1\snapshot\Repository\FS\
INDEX.BTR
OBJECTS.DATA
INDEX.MAP
OBJECTS.MAP

 

Just as a point of information, Abraxas was on the right track when speculating about why Gordon couldn't find the dllcache folder, but he didn't get quite specific enough.

C:\Windows\System32\Dllcache is visible ONLY if Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) is UNchecked on the View tab in Folder Options.

Jim