Can't access anything in control panel.

[Michael]

I can't access anything in my control panel. This is the
pop-up that I get:
"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or
file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access
the item."

This is my home computer and this pops up whenever I click
on anything thats in the control panel. Please help. I
don't know what to do about it.
Thank you,
Michael

[Mike M]

Michael,

From the message you report and that you can't access the control panel
suggests you may be infected by the CoolWebSearch parasite.

See Variant 24. CWS.Control at
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html and also
http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/c/cws.asp.

Download and use CWShredder, merijn's removal tool from either:
http://www.zerosrealm.com/downloads/CWShredder.zip
or
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip

You may also need to replace control.exe and rundll32.exe with new copies.

Control.exe is contained in WIN_16.CAB and Rundll32.exe in WIN_17.CAB of the
Win Me cab set and can be restored using MSConfig | General | Extract File ...
and following the prompts. The "cab" files are in the Win9x folder on the Win
Me CD and/or in a sub-folder of Windows\Options. See MS KB129605 - "HOW TO:
Extract Original Compressed Windows Files"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=129605).
--?
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Michael > wrote:

> I can't access anything in my control panel. This is the
> pop-up that I get:
> "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or
> file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access
> the item."
>
> This is my home computer and this pops up whenever I click
> on anything thats in the control panel. Please help. I
> don't know what to do about it.