Tools in Contole pannel do not open

[aneirin]

I have : Win XP profesionall sevice pack 1.

My problem :

When in controle pannel and click, lets say on Disblay, or add or remove softwere, they do not work. Once click they flash on the screen and vanish like they have been closed. I'd like to make it clear that the have not minimized, as there is no sigh of them, and clicking alt tab does not find them. Can anyone help me, or experienced the same problem and resolved this. I have to admit that i am new to Win xp, so if it is simple, i appologise now.

Thanks, will.

[ghost2003]

Just a blind guess, maybe somekind of malware. Try scaning with housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com I dont see what else could cause this. Did it do that since you installed it? if not maybe you could try to do a system restore to when it did work.

EDIT: Welcome to pcmech

[rhitwick]

try this :
right click on internet explorer , click on properties , click on advanced , under "browsing " u should be having an option called " enable 3rd party browser extensions " . uncheck that , restart the system , try opening control panel and see if it fixed the problem

[aneirin]

Thank you both for your ideas, but im afraid that nither have worked.

[Johanna]

Have you tried a System File Check?
Start > Run > cmd then type
sfc /scannow
and have your XP install disk ready

sfc - system file checker, retrieves the correct version of the file from %Systemroot%\System32\Dllcache or the Windows installation source files, and then replaces the incorrect file.

If you want to see what was replaced, right click My Computer > manage, expand event viewer > system.

Johanna