"Taskbar & Start Menu" and "Folder Options" icons don't work

[durzel]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone else has come across this before as I'm really
struggling to find a solution.

Out of the blue the "Taskbar & Start Menu" and "Folder Options" icons
in Control Panel have stopped working. When I double-click on them I
just get a generic "Open With" dialog, and the bit which usually shows
the filename you're trying to open is just blank.

If I change to the "Category View" of Control Panel, and select
"Appearances & Themes" and either of the two functions ("Taskbar &
Start Menu" and "Folder Options") I just get an "Application not found"
error box come up.

From searching the web and newsgroups I've been able to find out that

both these Control Panel functions are not actual .cpl files, but are
shell32.dll calls. For example,

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 0 - opens the "Folder Options"
applet
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 1 - opens the "Taskbar & Start
Menu" applet

These two seem to be unique as the other Control Panel icons all call
different .cpl files.

If I run either of those two commands from Start -> Run I get the
desired results. I can also select "Taskbar & Start Menu" from Start
-> Settings, and also "Folder Options" from the usual place under the
Tools menu in an Explorer window.

I can deduce from this that both applets are still working behind the
scenes, but the association between the Control Panel and them has been
lost/broken somewhere.

I have compared my registry against another PC running XP SP2 and there
are no obvious differences between the two in terms of classes &
namespace entries. They both share the same CLSIDs for the two
functions.

I have tried booting into Safe Mode to try and clear any caches that
might have broken data in, but this did not fix anything. The icons
did not work in Safe Mode either.

I also tried logging in as a different user thinking perhaps the
settings were localised to a corrupted user account, but I see the same
behaviour on the main Administrator account as well.

Really struggling to work out what's wrong here - would appreciate any
advice anyone can give short of a full reinstall/repair, which is my
last resort.

Thanks,

Daz

 

[Joe Wright]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone else has come across this before as I'm really
struggling to find a solution.

Out of the blue the "Taskbar & Start Menu" and "Folder Options" icons
in Control Panel have stopped working. When I double-click on them I
just get a generic "Open With" dialog, and the bit which usually shows
the filename you're trying to open is just blank.

If I change to the "Category View" of Control Panel, and select
"Appearances & Themes" and either of the two functions ("Taskbar &
Start Menu" and "Folder Options") I just get an "Application not found"
error box come up.

both these Control Panel functions are not actual .cpl files, but are
shell32.dll calls. For example,

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 0 - opens the "Folder Options"
applet
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 1 - opens the "Taskbar & Start
Menu" applet

These two seem to be unique as the other Control Panel icons all call
different .cpl files.

If I run either of those two commands from Start -> Run I get the
desired results. I can also select "Taskbar & Start Menu" from Start
-> Settings, and also "Folder Options" from the usual place under the
Tools menu in an Explorer window.

I can deduce from this that both applets are still working behind the
scenes, but the association between the Control Panel and them has been
lost/broken somewhere.

I have compared my registry against another PC running XP SP2 and there
are no obvious differences between the two in terms of classes &
namespace entries. They both share the same CLSIDs for the two
functions.

I have tried booting into Safe Mode to try and clear any caches that
might have broken data in, but this did not fix anything. The icons
did not work in Safe Mode either.

I also tried logging in as a different user thinking perhaps the
settings were localised to a corrupted user account, but I see the same
behaviour on the main Administrator account as well.

Really struggling to work out what's wrong here - would appreciate any
advice anyone can give short of a full reinstall/repair, which is my
last resort.

Have you tried this registry fix? The instructions are atop the page:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

117. Restore Taskbar and Start Menu
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/nodesktop.reg

368. Folder Options/View Empty - Restore Now
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/viewfolderrestore.reg

129. Restore Folder Options Under Tools
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/folderoptions.reg

225. Restore Folder Options/Internet Options
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/folderproperties.reg

 

[durzel]

Have you tried this registry fix? The instructions are atop the page:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

117. Restore Taskbar and Start Menu
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/nodesktop.reg

368. Folder Options/View Empty - Restore Now
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/viewfolderrestore.reg

129. Restore Folder Options Under Tools
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/folderoptions.reg

225. Restore Folder Options/Internet Options
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/folderproperties.reg

Hi Joe,

Thanks for that, but unfortunately I can tell from reading those .reg
files that they aren't going to fix the problem.

117 is a fix for when the taskbar/start menu itself disappears from the
bottom of the screen.

Not sure what 368 does but I checked the keys and they're already in
the registry, and are the same.

129 is a fix for when "Folder Options" doesn't appear under the Tools
menu. On my system "Folder Options" does appear there, and works
properly. It just doesn't work if you double-click the icon in Control
Panel.

Tried 225 but it didn't do anything either.

Thanks for your help though,

Darren