Control panel and other windows programs wont open

[Guest]

I'm running vista business 64 and about two or three times a week certain
programs (listed below) just won't open. Usually after a restart they will
work fine. It is a clean install-- the only program that I have installed is
adobe reader. I have all the latest windows updates as of 7/07/07, and
indexing, UAC, and defender are disabled. I Did a virus scan with defender
and it found nothing. Problem Reports and Solutions is empty. I looked in
event viewer and didn't notice anything unusual when this occurs. Any help
would be appreciated.

programs that don't run:
control panel- its window flashes for a split second then closes.
all bundled games with the exception for ink ball.
windows photo gallery
windows meeting space

This appears to be a problem a lot of other people are having as well:
http://thevistaforums.com/lofiversion/index.php/t9746.html
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=435655
http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25393
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=144134
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/582826-solved-vista-problems.html
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=64831

 

[Guest]

Just a quick point, Windows Defender is not an Anti-virus program.

 

[Guest]

OK, it happened again and so I tried restarting the Software Licensing
service. It fixed the problem, but I don't believe it is a permanent fix.
I also found that while this is happening, I can't open windows update or
the personalization menu (right click on desktop and hitting personalize).
Does this mean that windows is running in a reduced functionality mode?

 

[Steve]

OK, it happened again and so I tried restarting the Software Licensing
service. It fixed the problem, but I don't believe it is a permanent fix.
I also found that while this is happening, I can't open windows update or
the personalization menu (right click on desktop and hitting personalize).
Does this mean that windows is running in a reduced functionality mode?

I made a batch file with the following lines in it:

@net stop "Software Licensing"
@net start "Software Licensing"

Just open text document and add those lines, save it to desktop as
tempfix.bat or what ever you want and click it after you start up your pc.
Can even add it to the start menu so it cycles on start up.

Not a real fix, but it does get the job done.