Cannot open Control Panel or My Computer

[Babymomma]

Any idea what is going on? Try to open the control panel or my computer and The screen flashes and the icons blink- that's it. Will not open. Scanned for viruses none found-restore options do not fix it either. Just started and several I know are having this issue all of a sudden. So far in XP, ME, and 98. Any ideas?

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers!

Suggest you assume your AV has been compromised and scan it on line http://housecall.antivirus.com or http://www.pandasoftware.com/actives..._principal.htm are good ones.

[Babymomma]

Thanks, NooNoo-

I'll try housecall and see what I can find.

[Babymomma]

Oh-also wanted to add that we've done the following if it may lead to some other reason:

1. Restored back to before the issue (same thing happens)
2. safe mode (works fine) cleared start-up
3 back in normal windows it still would not open up the control panel.
4. Attempted to get into system properties to check DM(same thing happens like going to the control panel)
5. tried SFC/Scannow (same thing happens)
6. Repair install of windows (same thing happens)

So far, only reloading fixes it. Thanks again

[NooNoo]

Did you run a malware detection program?

Spybot, adaware, hijackthis, cwsshredder?

[Babymomma]

Hey, NooNoo
Yes and housecall. All came back fine. Cabal posted an issue similar to this one about IE/Control Panel and I asked you a question there as well. Lol!

Same thing happens here-screen goes away for a second then comes back.Works fine in safemode.

[Babymomma]

Tried different profiles. Does the same under each one. Cannot open IE, Control Panel, My NW places. This is in XP (thought other OS's as well, but turns out they have XP too)

[Stalemate]

Here's something that may work:

Click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load

Look in the right pane and you'll see the Control Panel Icons that have been disabled. You can either right click on the "don't load" subkey and select Delete to restore all disabled icons, or you can right click on each of the items in the right pane and select Delete to selectively restore them. Scroll up to Control Panel Applets for a listing of what each one is.

The change will be seen the next time you open Control Panel.

Also, here is a more complete list of the Control Panel Icons:

If You open windows explorer and search for all *.cpl files, You would see at least as many entries in search as You have in your control panel.Yes ! .cpl stands for control panel. If You do not want to navigate to any of your favorite entries, You can create a shortcut to that entry's corresponding cpl file. Following lists control panel and cpl file names:

System Properties = sysdm.cpl
Network Connections = ncpa.cpl
ODBC Administrator = odbccp32.cpl
Display Properties = desk.cpl
Add or remove programs = appwiz.cpl
Internet Properties = Inetcpl.cpl
Game Controllers = joy.cpl
Phone and modem Options = telephon.cpl
Time and Date Properties = timedate.cpl
Region and Language Options = intl.cpl
Power Options = powercfg.cpl
Mouse Properties = main.cpl
Accessibility Options = access.cpl
Add Hardware Wizard = hdwwiz.cpl
Sound and Audio Devices = mmsys.cpl
User Accounts = nusrmgr.cpl
Speech Properties = sapi.cpl

Now if You want to add/delete any of these entries from panel You can do it through Registry or gpedit.msc or through tweakui if You have powertoys installed. It is preferable to use gpedit or TweakUi as its easier.

From TweakUi, You have to simply click on control panel , and select/deselect entries in right panel as per your choice.

From gpedit.msc (to run gpedit, goto START-RUN and type gpedit.msc) Navigate to User Configuration- Administrative Templates-Control Panel folder select and right click on Show only specified Control Panel Applets , click on enabled and Then click on the show. In this list You won't see anything if its your first time. Click on add and type the complete file name from above list. (This is a bit more complicated process specially if You are a new user of the tool)

And if You are a registry fan, You can do this my navigating to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\] and adding a key field by the name "don't load" and one string value to each of the cpl file names. For example if You don't want to see accessibility options, add a string "access.cpl" on the right pane to the newly added key field "don't load". You can add as many strings You want.

[Babymomma]

Thanks, ADEPT!!! I'll try this today. What about IE and My Computer though? Can't open these either?? Thanks~

[NooNoo]

start, run, sysedit

Look in system.ini for shell=
it should say shell=explorer.exe

Does it?

Now check win.ini anything after load= or run= ?

[Babymomma]

Thanks, NooNoo-

I've been out of town. Will try this today and let you know the outcome.

Also, wanted to point out that there are 2 slight differences in the machines I'm referring to: All are Win XP

One CAN Open control panel, but cannot open IE, My Computer, My Network Places. On this one system, When we rebooted it gave a message that the system had the nCase virus.

The other systems cannot open Any of these ( No Control Panel, IE, My Network Places, My Computer) no mention of the virus, none detected in online housecall or all other steps taken (all work fine in Safemode)

I do not know enough about nCase virus to know if these are all the same exact issues, and possibly caused by different varients of this particular virus.

I believe it is 100% viral cause it started happening to alot of systems all of a sudden and out of the blue at/around the same time.

How can I check for this since AV is not picking it up?? I do not know what to look for?

[NooNoo]

Go through each of the steps here post your hijack this log and we will see what's left.

[i-right-i]

I have tried the above methods on a customers PC. Cannot get it, hijack log is only like 8 items. I have really chopped it down, I can post it later.

This is the first time I have seen spyware this stubborn.

Cannot open My Computer, Control Panel, or IE. In safe mode My Computer and Control Panel work, but still no IE.

Adaware and Spybot detected a bunch of stuff, but even after removing them it didnt fix. I looked in the REG and they are not blocked in the "no load" key.

And there are no re-directors running according to hijack. This is the 3rd machine I have seen like this, the first 2 I was able fix this one I cannot.

Any ideas on some new trojan or virus?

Thx,

i-right-i

[i-right-i]

Well, it looks like when either Adaware or Spybot, not sure which, or if the hijacker it self did it, but it messed up the profile that was running when this machine was infected.

I created a new profile and eveyrthing works just fine. So i just exported all of his Favorites, documents, and Email Addy's into the new file. The deleted the old profile.

Everything is working great now.

I hope this helps someones else, cause I am sure more of these will pop-up.

i-right-i

[Babymomma]

Hi, I-right-I

I tried creating a new Profile also, but it is not working. Still cannot open CP, IE, My Computer no matter how many prfiles I create??? I have done everything on this list and still no go. Anymore ideas anyone other than reloading?