Oh sorry... rereading your question... reinstall windows over existing is my recommdatation... perhaps all the cpls are gone...
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Browse All TopicsI have a Windows 98 computer (Cyrix 266MMX, 128MB RAM, 2 hard drives [extra one is ONLY used for storage, there is nothing on there besides MP3's, videos, etc.]) that I have attached to a network. One day, I wanted to go into Control Panel and adjust a setting (specifically, the Network, but more on that later). I went to My Computer, double clicked on Control Panel, and then double clicked Network. It said "Access to the specified device, path, or file is denied." There was only the option to click "OK". After I did, the Network dialog did not show up. Just to test it out, I double clicked on Internet Options (IE6 is installed, no new Service Packs, though), and the same thing popped up. Same for all the other Control Panel options. I doubt this is a virus, as my virus definitions are dated April 2, 2003 (Norton Anti-Virus). Please advise. Thank you.
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craigmusgrove: My computer came pre-installed with Windows 98, and the disk that came with it has been giving us trouble.
jackarmy: I have run Scandisk; it didn't detect anything, nor did it fix anything.
gonzal13: Unfortunately, I was not given a Windows 98 startup disk. However, I suspect the cabs are located in C:\Windows\options\cabs, so I will try it.
Merete: I have never heard of 'sfc'. I'll be sure to try it.
So you can open the control panel (c:\windows\control.exe) but can't open any of the icons (c:\windows\*.cpl)? Have you tried doing a Find on all *.cpl files on C:\ to make sure they weren't deleted?
Try extracting the control.exe file - Start - Run - SFC - Extract 1 file - input control.exe - Start - from: C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\ (or cdrom drive letter) to: C:\WINDOWS - OK
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by: craigmusgrovePosted on 2003-04-10 at 21:53:37ID: 8311507
Items in the control panel are stored in windows as .cpl files. For example, when you isntall quicktime and no notice there is now a quick time icon in the control panel, quicktime install has created a cpl file for you...
So now knowing that, I can tell you your netowrk cpl file is missing or damaged... we have to replace it. There are a few options.
Search your windows folder for *.cpl files (sorry I am wirting this from a windows xp box and the files may be differnet named). The do a search for the same files on a system that the network in contirl panel works on... you will see one .cpl file missing (on xp the network cpl is Ncpa.cpl). Copy that corresponding cpl from the good machine to the bad...
Or you can reinstall windows 98 over the existing install (this does no damamage and is actually a good procedure - it refreshes the system)...... this will replace the missing file...
Or you could spend the time figuring out in which CAB file the cpl file is in an manually extract it.
Any of the ways will work - depends on what you wanna do!
Craig