3rd party icons missing in control panel's "other control pan

[Lena5]

I am using XP home edition, SP3.

In Category View in the control panel, under "Other Control Panel Options" there are no icons for Java, QuickTime, BDE administrator and possibly some others. They are available only under Classic View. This has to be an error, because on another XP home SP3 system, these options are available under both "other control panel options" and in classic view.

I have also noticed that when I click on "other control panel options" a message will flash very quickly in the window ("These Control Panel options are not available. The content of the Control Panel category has been made unavailbe by your system admininistrator." - I could not catch the rest). The message is quickly replaced by "Pick a Control Panel icon" and three icons (for Norton Security Center, Program Updates, and Software Explorers).

I checked in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load, but there is nothing related to java, quicktime, etc.

Does anyone have any idea why the 3rd party icons are missing from just the category view?

Thanks in advance!

[infiniti25]

Try

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don't load

instead

Might help

Edited December 10, 2008 by infiniti25

[Lena5]

Hi Infiniti, thanks for the suggestion.

I checked HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don't load, but there was nothing there either.

I also went through as many keys as I could find pertaining to Control Panel and cpl, comparing each key to the computer on which the control panel works normally, and did not find any differences.

The biggest difference between the two systems (both XP home, SP3; running nearly all the same software) is the version of Norton Internet Security. The problematic control panel is on the one that has NIS2005, which is the cause of other strange, unexplained, and seemingly unfixable behavior. I'm beginning to think it may have something to do with this issue as well but do not have solid evidence just yet. Will need to see how things look after an upgrade to a newer Norton.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I checked HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don't load, but there was nothing there either.

I also went through as many keys as I could find pertaining to Control Panel and cpl, comparing each key to the computer on which the control panel works normally, and did not find any differences.

This is a longshot but when you search for a system-wide HKLM registry key like the one you mentioned:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don't load

You should also double-check for the presence of a corresponding HKCU version of the same, that by design will take precedence over the HKLM entry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don't load

Like I said it is a longshot though. I just checked a bunch of WinXP machines here and that HKCU entry does not exist. If it did exist, it would most likely arrive through some WinXP customization tweaking utility that lets you select things like different folder icons, etc; it would apply them naturally only to the current user. It could also arrive through manual editing or through a popular registry script as well.

Edited December 11, 2008 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[Lena5]

Thanks Charlotte,

I did check the HKCU first (in my first post) but I'm beginning to doubt that it has something to do with any registry key since only one view of the control panel is affected. I wish I could find out if there are separate settings for what shows up in classic and what shows up in category view. So far, everything I found suggests that whatever changes are made to hide or show icons affects both views.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I did check the HKCU first (in my first post) but I'm beginning to doubt that it has something to do with any registry key since only one view of the control panel is affected. I wish I could find out if there are separate settings for what shows up in classic and what shows up in category view. So far, everything I found suggests that whatever changes are made to hide or show icons affects both views.

Oops my bad, I see that now. Some more ideas:

The common denominator among those three is that they are as you say, 3rd party add-ins (Sun/Apple/Borland). Do you see any other 3rd party CPL add-ins that do show up in Category View? Perhaps the sound card (e.g., Realtek)? You mentioned "Norton Security Center, Program Updates, and Software Explorers", but I couldn't understand if you meant they show up. If so, Norton and Installshield would be 3rd party add-ins.

You mentioned XP home, and I think you implied you are not an Admin on the computer. Please describe the situation. Are you logged in to one user on a multi-user machine (maybe parents or what not)? This would steer me towards thinking the admin somehow locked out further changes to things like CPL. Then again, Norton and McAfee also might be involved. Can you access this computer on another account, preferably an admin and check the two different Control Panel views there?

Is TweakUI installed? It sometimes can be found in Control Panel and usually somewhere in the Start Menu. I have not used it in a while but since it is quite capable of removing those stubborn icons from the desktop and also capable of removing drive letters and autorun entries, I would not be surprised that Control Panel can be modified as well.

I know that the file Windows\Control.ini is a zero byte placeholder on WinXP (on Win9x that file is the equivalent of your registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Control Panel), but I was wondering if somehow it got some data added to it. I doubt that WinXP would use it, but I might be wrong. It might be worth checking out.

Clearly there must be some policy set somewhere. My best guess is that there is some elaborate System Guard (that's McAfee terminology) installed by Norton/Symantec.

EDIT: typo ... demoniator == denominator (2nd edit, first got lost!)

Edited December 13, 2008 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[Lena5]

Thanks for your thoughts on this!

Apologies I worded my posted strangely now that I look at it.

The icons that are available are: Norton Security Center, Program Updates, and Software Explorers

The icons that are missing but still appear in classic view: BDE administrator, Broadcom control suite 2, internal NIC configuration, Java, Quicktime, SigmaTel Audio, and Symantec LiveUpdate.

All the non 3rd-party icons are fine, showing up normally in both views.

I didn't mean to imply I am not an admin. I am the only user of this system and there is only one user account (with administrator privileges).

I created 2 additional accounts just for the purpose of checking the control panel. One of these accounts had admin privileges, the other did not. But both of them had the exact same control panel I see in my usual account. I have since closed the two and am back to just my first and only (admin) account.

No, I do not have TweakUI installed. I did not find a need for its features as of yet.

I agree that it is most likely something to do with Norton.

I also went through as many keys as I could find pertaining to Control Panel and cpl, comparing each key to the computer on which the control panel works normally, and did not find any differences.

The biggest difference between the two systems (both XP home, SP3; running nearly all the same software) is the version of Norton Internet Security. The problematic control panel is on the one that has NIS2005, which is the cause of other strange, unexplained, and seemingly unfixable behavior. I'm beginning to think it may have something to do with this issue as well but do not have solid evidence just yet. Will need to see how things look after an upgrade to a newer Norton.

For an example of Norton's strange influence: I have traced to Norton Internet Security 2005 (and other users have confirmed) that if you log off then back on, you can no longer check email with Thunderbird (connection is refused) until you restart. So it would be impossible to use Thunderbird if there were multiple users that log on and off.