Loss of Control Panel

[Guest]

Hi
We recently were hit by a virus which, once removed, we appears to have
removed the control panel from three out of four user accounts. The only
difference between the accounts was that one (the one that kept control
panel) was password protected. Now it appears that all administration rights
for the three users have been removed and the system will not let us restore.
Any advise?

Many thanks
Cherry

 

[Guest]

From one of the affected accounts, right-click on the start menu, choose
Properties, then hit the Customize button. Scroll through the list of items
showing in the start menu and make sure the Control Panel is set to Display
as a link or menu, and not set to "Don't display this item"

Also, from the remaining account with Admin rights: from the Computer
Management Page (Right click My computer, choose Manage) check the Groups
Folder under Local Users and Groups. You can quickly re-add local accounts to
the Administrators group through here.

I also advise you reset the passwords of the user accounts, and check to see
if any new accounts have mysteriously showed up (under the Users folder in
Local Users and Groups. Be advised this view will show you any system account
that is hidden from regular view, and there will probably be one or two valid
accounts that you'll want to be wary of disabling lest they affect your pc is
some negative way. Right-click on any rogue accounts this virus may have
created and choose properties. Disable the account. Later on, if you
determine this account was not a valid system account for some application or
service, you can delete it.

 

[Guest]

Hi All,

The Saga of missing Control Panel continues here...no luck with any
solutions... Even the above hotfix.

Just to recap...I have tried the liscencing fix but no joy, as well as
attempting to use system restore on Compaq Presario SR2150NX new computer (4
months old). I cant believe they sold it with only 512 Mb shared! System
restore come up with error that it can not complete restore for an
unspecified reason. I am doing this remoteley by phone and IM, have tried
remote assistance but it immeadiately says that remote user cancelled
connection when she did not. Did apply a MS fix for remote assist which got
me to that point. Upgraded to 2Gb memory Installed hoping that will help
problem, No Luck, Video Card has not been installed yet to see if that cures
prob but dont think that will cure problem with this machine.



Also have run AVG AV and AVG AS and AVG ANtiRookit and HOUSECALL6.6 from
Trend Micro 22 grayware found 1 Malware - Hotbar Toolbar which were all
removed.



Of note the control panel is visible in safe mode but due to limited
functionality in safe mode not much can be done there, or can there be more
than I know about?



This is Vista Home Basic

Hardware
Base processor Celeron 356 (C) 3.33 GHz
533 MHz front side bus Socket 775 Chipset
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 for Intel Processors
Motherboard Manufacturer: ECS Motherboard Name: RC415ST-HM
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Alhena5-GL6
Memory Component Attributes Memory Installed 2GB DDR2 SDRAM

Hard drive 120 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec) 7200 rpm



*** I also found that if:

right-click on the start menu, choose
Properties, then hit the Customize button. Scroll through the list of items
showing in the start menu and make sure the Control Panel is set to Display
as a link or menu, and not set to "Don't display this item" This was of no
help on this machine but may be of interest to others



**** Also ran SFC for Vista but results say that only 98% of SFC ran with no
problems detected...Question is why only 98%??? Is this correct operational
Limit????

How to Run SFC:

Type "cmd" into the Search box above the Start Button>and when cmd comes up
at the top of the Start menu>right click cmd and click "run as Admin" and
when the cmd prompt comes up at the cmd prompt type "sfc /scannow" no quotes
and let it run. This may fix things quite a bit. It replaces corrupt files
with intact ones, if you're not familiar with it.



I found this Item in other forums and need to try it on that machine I did
look in my Vista Laptop but did not see this - dont know if it applies to
Vista or XP

There is a list of hidden CPLs (Control Panel applet) are kept in the
registry. You can reset the listing by editing the registry directly. Follow
these steps:

Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe
Navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ don't load

Backup the branch using the Export option under File menu
In the right pane, delete all the values whose data is set to no
Close Regedit.exe



I tried this below but Add/Remove programs did not run or show up - also got
this from another forum

In run command under accessories type appwiz.cpl to get the add/remove
programs



Below is the list of hotfixes including the one that has to be e-mailed
acces from Microsoft It ran but no luck - also results of attemping to run
each hotfix is listed by associated 1.

312948_intl_i386_zip ran o.k. after unzipping
Windows6.0-KB937385-x86 Ran - error message not applicable to this system
Windows6.0-KB938194-x86 Ran no problem but did not fix it
Windows6.0-KB938979-x86 Ran - error message not applicable to this system



At this point will run regedit on the problem machine and then search for
*.cpl 's to see if any other control panel items will work by calling them
sepeately



also want to ask if anyone knows of the group policy setting location that
may control whether this is shown or not.




Any help with these problems would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like you've got a doozy.

Since you've gone through hell and high water to attempt a repair of the
accounts. Why not try from scratch? Copy each user's documents, desktop, and
favorites folders to another area of the PC, export mail too. Delete each
crippled account, and re-create them, then copy the documents, desktop and
favorites folders back in, then import the mail.