Troubleshooting broken apps and shortcuts

You folks are an amazingly skillful bunch. Take, for example, this e-mail from reader "Rick" in which he thoroughly analyzes the problem and works through possible solutions.

  "My friend has a new Windows 7 PC that has been fine. She asked me to do something which involved the Control Panel. I clicked the Control Panel icon on the task bar and nothing happened. I could hover the mouse over the Control Panel icon, and I got the small pop-up window showing me the Control Panel, but when I clicked on that window to expand the Control Panel, nothing happened. I tried other icons like Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer, and they all opened fine.

      "I booted into safe mode and Control Panel opened fine. My friend said she hadn't done anything to the PC lately.

      "I ran fixwin, had it fix anything that seemed related to Aero or the Control Panel problem. I tried to disable Aero Peek, but I'm not sure I was ever able to do so because other programs were able to be peeked. I turned off her antivirus and firewall, tried using Run and typing in control.exe, but still could not find a way to open Control Panel. I right-clicked on the Control Panel icon on the task bar and chose Maximize, Restore, move, and size — but no luck.

      "If I hovered the mouse over the Control Panel pop-up window, I could see a blank frame on the desktop screen, like the Control Panel had opened but was transparent. I again tried to disable Aero and couldn't find a way to actually turn it off because any settings were related to Control Panel and I couldn't get into Control Panel.

      "Again, other icons on the task bar work fine; it's just Control Panel. I've Googled and searched the Lounge at Windows Secrets but haven't found this issue. Can you please help?"

Answering Rick's letter is the top item in my column in this week's WindowsSecrets.com newsletter; I run through half a dozen ways to resurrect Control Panel, plus ways to fix almost any broken shortcut.

Other topics in my column this week:

• How to replace a pirated copy of Win7
• Demystifying PAL, NTSC, and DVD codes
• Microsoft's free PowerShell task language

The issue's full rundown:

The following link includes all articles this week: http://WindowsSecrets.com/comp/100715 Free content posted on July 15, 2010: TOP STORY By Michael Lasky Run Windows on iPad using remote-computing apps Ignite simple and cheap remote-control The not-so-easy business remote-access solution iTeleport offers audio and a better keyboard LOUNGE LIFE By Tracey Capen At some point, you just have to move on WACKY WEB WEEK By Stephanie Small Where to send your annoying Apple friends   Paid content (no set fee; pay only what you think it's worth): LANGALIST PLUS By Fred Langa Troubleshooting broken apps and shortcuts Windows 7's Control Panel will not load How to replace a pirated copy of Win7 Demystifying PAL, NTSC, and DVD codes Microsoft's free PowerShell task language IN THE WILD By Robert Vamosi How to pick and optimize your home router Your Internet path gives an opening to hackers Look for routers that meet the latest standard Recommended routers for home and small biz Fine-tune your new router for maximum security Make router config changes with less effort PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Support ends for Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 Windows 2000 event taught hard security lessons Microsoft quickly patches controversial bug Canonical driver fixed for Windows 7 displays ActiveX patch for Office could hit business apps Office 2010 skates past a vulnerability unharmed A portion of your support helps children in developing countries Each month, we send a full year of sponsorship to a different child. Your contributions in July are helping us to sponsor Alfredo, an 8-year-old boy from the Philippines. Children International channels development aid from donors to Alfredo and his community. We also sponsor kids through Save the Children and Plan USA. More info

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Posted via email from Fred's posterous