Control Panel icon vanished

[DanRichman]

after i carelessly and too-quickly used microsoft's TweakUI, the
control panel, help and search icons inside the start menu of windows
xp have disappeared. so those features are now inaccessible.

how can i get them back? i have found nothing definitive about this
online. i have tried restoring them through TweakUI, but that doesn't
work.

accurate advice much appreciated.

dan richman
seattle
(e-mail address removed)

 

[JTW]

TweakUI hides control panel applets by adding entries to the registry
section: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load" - When you click
one to hide, a value/data pair is added, something like "ncpa.cpl=no".
When you re-check, it should remove it from the registry. You can look
to see if for some reason it is not removing it from the registry, and
manually delete the data/value pair if it appears. You can also look
under
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control
Panel\don't load" to see if entries you want to see appear there.

 

[DanRichman]

JTW--

thanks much for your helpful reply.

obviously you know a lot about the registry. i, on the other hand, know
nothing.

you write that "a value/data pair is added, something like . . . " can
you possibly say *exactly* what value/data pair(s) i should look for?
otherwise i'm going to be mucking around with something that, as i
understand it, could cause a lot of damage.

thanks again!

 

[JTW]

If you open up TweakUI and go to the Control Panel section, you see
that it has entries that read like "[] access.cpl - Accedssibility
Options", "[] appwiz.cpl - Shell Application Manager", etc. The first
part of each line is the name of the actual file (??????.cpl). Within
the previously cited registry key, if there are any entries there, they
will be the "??????.cpl=no" entries showing the same file names. You
can then match the file name with it's friendly name in TweakUI.

The only value/data pairs within these registry keys are for
controlling what is seen and what is not - if they are deleted, it
doesn't hurt your system. Are you seeing value/data pairs under those
keys?

 

[DanRichman]

i'm at work, and the problem is with my home machine. i'll check the
above carefully over the weekend and respond to you. i hope you'll be
able to work with me a little more on this if necessary.

thank you again!

 

[WTC]

after i carelessly and too-quickly used microsoft's TweakUI, the
control panel, help and search icons inside the start menu of windows
xp have disappeared. so those features are now inaccessible.

how can i get them back? i have found nothing definitive about this
online. i have tried restoring them through TweakUI, but that doesn't
work.

accurate advice much appreciated.

First try these steps,

Control Panel (Classic View) > Taskbar and Start Menu Properties > Customize
button > Advance tab.
Ensure you have Control Panel, and Search to show on the Start Menu.

If you are still having your problem then edit the registry at these
locations:

Note: The following keys may not be present and is normal when restriction
are not enforced.

Help and Support for the Start Menu
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
or
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Delete "NoSMHelp" in the right-hand pane or change the value to 0 (zero).

Search on the Start Menu
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
or
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Delete "NoFind" in the right-hand pane or change the value to 0 (zero).

Control Panel on the Start Menu
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
or
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Delete "NoControlPanel" in the right-hand pane or change the value to 0
(zero).

 

[DanRichman]

william crawford and JTW --

thanks for your suggestions. problem solved! i'm very grateful.

dan

 

[WTC]

william crawford and JTW --

thanks for your suggestions. problem solved! i'm very grateful.

You're welcome Dan.