Exception in shell32.dll

[timothy.spaulding]

I attempted to install Norton Systemworks which would not install
completely. After the third attempt it would no longer uninstall and I
discovered the control panel add/remove program function is apparenlty
now corrupted. I get this message:

An exception occurred while trying to run
"C\WINDOWS\systems32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\appwiz.cpl",Add or Remove Programs"

I have used an AVAST BART disk to copy over a good version of
shell32.dll and appwiz.cpl but I still get the error.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[timothy.spaulding]

Here's where I am so far.

The first instruction is to run the following from a CMD panel:
REGSVR32 APPWIZ.CPL

I received the following message: DllRegisterServer in appwiz.cpl
succeeded

Add/Remove programs still gave me the original error message.

I checked the registry keys identified in step 3 and only found two
discrepancies. This key:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\InprocServer32]
is listed as having a value of "ThreadingModel"="Apartment" but mine
had "Both". I changed it to "Apartment" (without quotes).

The other discrepancy was this key:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\ProgID]
listed as having a value of "ADODB.Recordset.2.5" but mine was
"ADODB.Recordset.2.8". I left it since it appeared to be a version
level which is more recent.

Add/Remove programs still gave me the original error message.

I have IE7 and neither of the CMD lines provided (for IE6 and IE5) were
able to locate the file.

Checked the following keys as instructed:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache

Both registry keys contained entries.

Attempted to register files as instructed. The first on the list is

%systemroot%\System32\Appwiz.cpl

I received the following error message:

An exception occurred while trying to run "shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL
"C:\WINDOWS\System32\appwiz.cpl","

So I am still at loss. I would prefer not to reinstall XP as this would
be a major disaster. Any other ideas? Can I reinstall SP2?

I was not able to locate a support article on reinstalling the
add/remove tool.