cpl file won't open

[bcdemon]

Hello WinDrivers folk.

I recently aquired a trojan, a variant of the OPTIX I believe. Luckily I discovered it before anything severe could happen, but a few things did happen. I went through the registry and the windows dir and removed everything pertaining to "GLsetIT32, msiexec16.exe and MPLDFG.exe" I have installed Trojan Hunter and have done a complete scan of my PC, it has found nothing now. However, registry changes were made. When I tried to open an .exe I kept getting the "Open Program With" dialogue box, fortunately I found it was a registry change and was able to download a .reg to import and fix the problem. The same thing happened with the Control Panel .cpl files, I was getting the "unable to find Rundll32" dialogue box. The same webhttp://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htmpage that had the .exe registry fix also has a .cpl registry fix. However, now when I click on a Control Panel file, like Display Properties icon, a command prompt window quickly opens and closes and that's all. This is the same for all the cpl files. I have checked my registry settings for the .cpl and cplfile strings and they are consistant with what I found across the internet. I have also checked the File Types in the Explorer folder options, and they seem to be correct aswell.

Thank you for any help that is, well, helpful.

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers bcdemon

control panel files live in c:\windows\system32
If you double click one, does it open the applet?
If you do a search for *.cpl with hidden files and folders on and checking system files, do you see cpl files in the dll cache as well?

[bcdemon]

Welcome to Windrivers bcdemon

control panel files live in c:\windows\system32
If you double click one, does it open the applet?
If you do a search for *.cpl with hidden files and folders on and checking system files, do you see cpl files in the dll cache as well?

Yes, the .cpl files are in the system32 and the system32\dllcache folders. If I click on either one of them, the same thing happens as mentioned above.

[bcdemon]

Update:

I have checked every .cpl in the control panel, I can open my Network connections (Ncpa.cpl), I can open the Folder Options in Explorer\Tools, but not the Folder Options in the Control Panel. And I also cannot open these files in a Command Prompt, when I try, another Command Prompt window flashes open then closes.

[NooNoo]

Are any of the control panel applets listed in the registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load\

If so, remove the entries under don't load.

If not, do you have another logon? Can you load control panel applets in safe mode while logged on as Administrator?

[bcdemon]

I have 2 cpl listed in "dont load". NCPA.cpl and Odbccp32.cpl, which is odd because I can open both of those. I tried adding desk.cpl and it just removed the icon from the CP (I'll try anything at this point). And no, I only have 1 logon. I will get back to you about the safe mode bit.

[NooNoo]

If safe mode doesn't work, you need to replace the .cpl files. method 1 is the easiest (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888017)

[bcdemon]

Hot diggidy dog. I found the answer, it was a bad rundll32.exe in the system32 folder (apparently OPTIX replaced the one in system32 but not the one in dllcache), the one in system32\dllcache was fine. I expanded the rundll32 from the XP CD to the system32 folder and now my .cpl files work fine.

I would just like to say thank you very much NooNoo for all your help and quick replies. Go figure, 2 weeks off messing around and all it was was 1 simple little command and presto.

ps. You gave me the idea on the expand thing, another forum post gave me the idea to try expanding rundll32. Kudos to people like you, very much appreciated.

[NooNoo]

Glad to help :)