How to fix/reinstall Display Properties Applet?

[Darkeforce]

I cannot open the Display Properties from my desktop (right-click); the
window either flickers open for a split second, and then vanishes, or else
nothing happens. When I try to open it from the Control Panel -> Appearances
and Themes category, it will only open if I select "Choose a screensaver" or
"Change the screen resolution". And even then, once open, the applet will
crash if I click the "Themes" or "Desktop" tabs.

The problem started when I installed the drivers and software for a new ATI
Radeon video card. I've gone through extensive technical service with them,
and they concluded that it was a problem with Windows. I want to try to
repair or reinstall the cpl file (or whatever) for Display Properties to see
if that fixes it, but I can't find how to do that. When I try to do a Repair
Install from the Windows CD, it goes off into DOS mode, which is utterly
useless to me.

What ever happened to the "Repair Windows Installation" option from Win98,
anyway?

 

[Himanshu Dogra]

Hello

This issue comes up if the new ATI drivers are not compatible with your
computer. Try following steps:

0. Click on start-->all programs-->accessories-->system tools->click on
system restore. click on next and then select any date on the left hand side
which is dark as compared to other dates and click on next computer will
automatically restart. is the issue still persists then follow the follwing
steps. We actually did the system restore to the date on which the computer
was working fine. You can select any date on which the computer was working
fine. Make sure if you perform the repair by using the windows cd it wont
resolve the issue as the drivers for ATI are not provided by windows. Repair
will remove all the drivers from the computer and the display will be very
big then you have to use the ATI drivers cd to make the computer display
normal.
1. Right click on My computer-->click on manage-->computer management
windows will come up.
2. Click on device manager on the left hand side and you will see all the
devices listed on the right hand side.
3. open up display adapters option...select the ATI device. Right click on
that and click properties. Click on driver tab on the top and then click on
the roll back driver option. It should resolve the issue.
--





Regards

Himanshu Dogra
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

 

[Darkeforce]

No, I already tried that. Even with drivers 4 steps older than the newest,
the problem persists. I need to know how to repair/reinstall the Display
Properties applet, as after thoroughly examining the system reports, the ATI
techs concluded it was a problem with Windows, not their Drivers.

 

[Darkeforce]

I've tried all the Microsoft tricks to try to repair this. I know what I need
to do; I just can't figure out how to do it. MS removed the
essentially-important "Repair Windows Installation" option from XP, and I
need to use that to repair/reinstall the file(s) for the Display Properties
applet/utility. How do I do that? When I try to use the "repair" option from
the XP CD autorun, it puts me into DOS mode, with no indication whatsoever of
what to do; no instructions, no wizard...

System Restore and Rollback Driver are useless; it's damage to the Display
Property applet, and it need to be repaired/reinstalled. How can I do that
without completely reinstalling all of Windows again?

 

[Malke]

I've tried all the Microsoft tricks to try to repair this. I know what I
need to do; I just can't figure out how to do it. MS removed the
essentially-important "Repair Windows Installation" option from XP, and I
need to use that to repair/reinstall the file(s) for the Display
Properties applet/utility. How do I do that? When I try to use the
"repair" option from the XP CD autorun, it puts me into DOS mode, with no
indication whatsoever of what to do; no instructions, no wizard...

System Restore and Rollback Driver are useless; it's damage to the Display
Property applet, and it need to be repaired/reinstalled. How can I do that
without completely reinstalling all of Windows again?

Actually you haven't tried "all the Microsoft tricks" because you are doing
the Repair Install incorrectly. You're in the wrong place. You're in the
Recovery Console which is not for doing the Repair Install.

You've already gone into Safe Mode and tried a System Restore? If no, please
try this.

You've already booted using Last Known Good Configuration? If no, please try
this.

To do a Repair Install - not removed at all in XP - follow instructions
here:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Malke

 

[bkjanik]

I was having a very similar problem after installing a new MSI Nvidia
Geforce 6200 card. It turned out that the driver that came with the
card had installed a new tab onto my display properties. The tab was
causing display properties to crash. I looked up how to uninstall an
MSI tab off of display properties. It turned out all I had to do was
delete the msicpl.dll file out of my windows\system32 folder. I would
encourage you to find out if their were any tabs added to your display
properties and figure out how to uninstall them. Also, I found a
Microsoft article that might have been useful. I was not able to try
it because I figured out how to fix it another way. Here is a link to
the article. It might be useful to you or someone else.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317128

Other thoughts:

By the way, I tried the repair install first and it didn't help.
Nothing really worked until I uninstalled the extra tab. Also, I was
able to tell what tabs I had by going to the registry key
hkey_current_user\control panel desktop and deleting the wallpaper
value. Then I was able to open the damaged display properties and
observe the tabs. That didn't really fix the problem, because it
would crash every time I tried to change the wallpaper or background,
but it did give me useful information. Also, before fixing it, I was
able to reset the wallpaper by right-clicking on an image in internet
explorer and setting it as background.

 

[Darkeforce]

That fixed it perfectly! Thank-you. I had an nVidia video card before, and I
had run Driver Cleaner to clear out everything from nVidia before I installed
my Radeon card, but it missed that file somehow. Thanks

 

[Barbara]

I'm glad I can help. I see you had been struggling with it since February
8th. I only had the problem for 4 days and it nearly drove me crazy. I
guess my persistance payed off for both of us because we both finally got our
problem solved. I had a feeling when I saw your posts that we had a very
similar problem. --Barbara