Can't access control panel

Welcome to Major Geeks!

This could be signs of some hidden malware, but let's try something to get started.

Now Copy the bold text below to notepad. Save it as fixME.reg to your desktop. Be sure the "Save as" type is set to "all files" Once you have saved it double click it and allow it to merge with the registry.

Tell me if you receive a success message or not on adding the above to the registry.

Any change to your Control Panel problem?

 

Perhaps you do not have it set to show. Did you check by right clicking Start and selecting Properties. Then click Start Menu and then click the Customize button. Now select Advanced. Under the Start menu items box is Control Panel set to Display as a link or Display as a menu. Or is it set to Don't display this item

 

This does not sound like malware. It sounds more like a Windows Operating system issue or a registry settings issue. As such I may need to send you to the Software Forum; however, first answer these questions:

1. are you logged into an account that has administrator priviledges?
2. do you have other user accounts on this PC? If so, do they work OK?
3. if you click Start, Run, and enter control and click OK, does control panel open?
4. if you boot in safe mode and log into the account that is actually named Administrator, does Control Panel work?

 

See this: Starting your computer in Safe mode


Let's continue on to do a slightly modified standard malware cleaning to see what we can turn up. Your problems may or may not be malware but this is the only way to know. You may also run have few issues trying to complete all steps due to restrictions that are being forced on your user account. Just continue on and follow the steps as best as you can.

First see if you can run this Running AVG Anti-Spyware and attach the log here. See: HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post

Then run this Using MGtools and attach the C:\MGlogs.zip file here.