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can't get to control panel

16 years ago

My cousin can't click on the start button and open anything. Is there a way to get to the control panel without going through the start button? I've tried looking but have come up empty. Dan grandkids of hers won't leave things alone.

Dell computer running windows XP.

Thanks.

Judy

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Comments (11)

judys_ont
16 years ago
Hi Judy---long time.

hmmm...I'm wondering why your cousin can't click on the start button-is it not visible, or no mouse?

Has she tried the windows key to get the start menu? Then she could use the arrow keys, if she has to, to navigate to control panel.

Let us know how she makes out.

(the other) Judy
reduc500
Original Author
16 years ago
The start button is visible but nothing happens when she clicks on it. I had her try right clicking on the task bar but nothing happens there either. I didn't think about the windows key. But that didn't work either. It acts like something is locking her out of there but I can't figure out what or how to change it.
Thanks.
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bob414
16 years ago
I would try starting in safe mode and try to get to the control panel that way.
jdb8180
16 years ago
If you have your browser open and type C: and press enter it opens up the contents of My Computer if I remember right. If you don't see it there then if you click the drop down arrow in the address bar you will see the control panel.

I hope this helps.
randy_ca
16 years ago
If the start button doesn't work, click ctrl+alt+del to bring up the task manager, with task manager open click file (top left) "New Task" (run) and type> control.exe
that should open the control panel.

I think I would type> restore
then click rstrui (System Restore Application) to restore the computer to an eariler time before this happened.
reduc500
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks. When I go down next week I will try that.
mikie_gw
16 years ago
I always tell everybody to press the F1 key.
msladybyte
16 years ago
This is a virus....a trojan horse....I can't remember the exact one but I just got through fighting it on two different laptops and finally just reloaded both of them. EXACT same symptoms.

You can try bringing up Task Manager with Ctrl+Alt+Del and then....file...New Task (run) and then "msconfig" and try to turn everything off under the "Start-up" tab and then restart....(if you find something under Start-Up that has no name, i.e. blank, that's the virus) it helped for a bit and let me get the virus definitions up to date, but then the virus kept replicating itself and it started doing the same thing all over again. I downloaded the fix from Symantec and even ran that 3 times until it said the virus was completely gone....it lied...it came right back EXACTLY the same way it was before...;-(

Reload! lol

Good Luck...and you have my empathy.

Thanks,

Connie aka MsLadyByte
reduc500
Original Author
16 years ago
That wouldn't surprise me if it is a virus or trojan. Her dang grandson downloads anything and everything and God only knows what is on there. I haven't been able to get down to look it over to see what might be on it.
daylilydayzed
16 years ago
If a trojan comes back after a virus removal tool is used to remove it, it is because of the system restore points. To delete it, Go to System Restore and Turn off System Restore. Then shut off computer, Turn computer back on and turn system restore back on.
reduc500
Original Author
16 years ago
I got lucky. I called her this morning to see if she was going to be home and she has taken her computer to the shop to be fixed. I wasn't looking forward to doing anything on it because I knew in a few weeks it would be screwed up again. So this way she has to pay to have it fixed and I still have my nerves intact!!
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Judy

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