Pop up message

Hi, for some reason I cannot open any icons on my Control Panel. When I click on an icon I get this pop up message: "Windows cannot find C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the START button, then click Search" Hope someone can help. Thank you.

 

Hi Halo, thank you for your help but nothing seems to work. I am still getting the pop up message. Still cannot open any icons on Control Panel. Have you any more suggestions? Thank you.

 

First thing to do is make sure that rundll.exe is even on your PC. Open My Computer. I'm assuming this is Windows XP, so click Tools > Folder Options > View tab. Scroll down a bit and be sure the circle for "Show hidden files and folder" is checked, and the box for "Hide protected system files and folders" is unchecked. Then navigate to C:\windows\system32 and look for rundll.exe. If it is there, then we have a different issue; if it's not there, using the steps in the link Halo provided will install the file from your Windows XP disc. If you don't have the Windows XP disc, let us know and we'll do what we can. If the file is there, but isn't working, try running Dial-A-Fix and checking all the boxes in the Registration Center, then click Go. If you get any errors, post them here and we'll do what we can. If Dial-A-Fix runs w/o errors but doesn't fix the problem, you can try the System File Checker, but without the Windows CD, it isn't as much help as it could be. If you have the CD, put it in the CD drive and click Exit when the big blue "what do you want to do?" window opens. Then click Start > Run and type cmd and press Enter. In the black command prompt window that opens, type sfc /purgecache and press Enter. If you don't have the XP disc, you might want to skip that step and go straight to this step. When the 'purgecache' command is done (maybe a minute), type sfc /scannow and press Enter. This can take some time so be patient. You may be prompted to insert the XP disc even though it's in the drive, just click OK or Retry or whatever it is. If it comes up a lot, and you have a 2nd CD drive, move the CD to the other drive. When the 'scannow' has finished, type exit and press Enter. Remove the Windows disc and restart the PC. If none of this helps, or you don't have a Windows disc, let us know and we'll do what we can for you
Good luck!

(oh yeah... download Dial-A-Fix from here http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4899.html It's free... in the 'sfc' commands above, there is a space before the slash / in each command and there's no other spaces)

 

Hi dlb, Thank you for your help. I will try my best to do what you say but unfortunately I don't have a Windows XP disc. (I think Major Geeks are wonderful)

 

Hi plodr, thank you for your reply. I am grateful for your help.

 

Hi Halo, thank you once again for being so kind. I have Windows XP Home SP3. I couldn't find rundll exe. but I will double check then follow your instructions. Bye for now.

 

Hi again, thank you for the attachment, which is now on my computer but I am now getting a different pop up message which is: "Windows cannot access device path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item" This happens on everything I try to open. I've also found that System Restore will not restore at all. It seems as if it is doing a restore but then I get this new message. Can you give me any idea how to get past this new message please.

 

Hi Halo, thank you very much for all your help but unfortunately nothing seems to work. I think I will have to go to PC World and pay for them to sort it for me. I know it's my own fault but at least I tried. You have done your very best to help me and thank you.