Technical Documentation

Control panel missing in Windows XP

PROBLEM:

Control Panel icon is missing. When trying to run it from the RUN command you get a restriction error message.

SOLUTION:

The problem may lie in the registry. To open the Registry Editor do the following:

1. Click [Start] --> Run and type regedit.
2. Navigate to the following entries:
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer => in each location is there an entry called NoControlPanel and what's its value ? If it's different from 0 then set it to 0.
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer => is there an entry called NoClose and what's its value ? If it's different from 0 then set it to 0.
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced => is there an entry called Start_ShowControlPanel and what's its value? If it's different from 2 then set it to 2.
   
   

Source: Kelly's corner (http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm).

If that didn't work, see whether creating a new user account solves the problem. If so copy your user profile to the new account (you'll need a third temporary account to be able to move the files from the first one to the second one):

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/811151)

If those solutions did not work and if the CD you have access to is a recovery CD then the remaining option will be to recover the system to the state it was when you first bought it. Backup your personal data on an external drive and do the recovery.

Apply to: Windows XP

collected by George Lopez-Henriquez / www.inetnj.com