One of my rarely used notebooks running Win7 Ultimate 64 bit has decided not to run a number of control panel Windows functions like Update, Firewall, User Accounts, Troubleshooting, System, Sync Centre, Speech Recognition, Programs and Featureand several more. Launching them flashes the mouse pointer for a second and that is all - no hard drive activity and no new processes appear in task manager. Other control panel functions continue to work OK anduser installed programs are fine.Even the "New updates are available" message still appears but clicking it opens nothing. I'm mystified and hoping there's a solution short of a clean reinstall.

Hi, Does it happen recently? If so, try system restore to check the result.Or is there any newly installed software\hardware?Create a new account to check if your user profile is corrupted.1. Click the Start Button, and then click Control Panel. 2. Click switch to a Classic View in left panel. 3. Double-click User Accounts.4. Click Manage another account.Note: Please click Continue if the User Account Control (UAC) window prompts. 5. Click "Create a new account".6. Type in the account name and select choose an account type (For Example: Administrator or Standard user). Then, click Create Account.Scanning virus should be under consideration too.

Thanks for the response. Creating a new user was one ofmy firstattempts at fixing it but that's one of the non-functioning functions.However I was able to do a system restore (one of the few functions that still work!) from a month ago and, after having to redo my Windows activation which took some effort, things are working again. I tend to forget about System Restore since I've always turned it off on previous Windows versions as it never seemed to do anything but mess things up worse than they were before. But this time it was certainly useful. BTW, not likely a virus as AVG8 was working since install and found nothing. Thanks again.