Windows Programs can't be launched, Recent Items empty, missing Control Panel icons

Hi,



I am not repeating the entire issue here. The subject says it all... Kindly visit



http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33920059



Basically, 90% of installed apps stop working all of a sudden... the screenshots in that thread

illustrate the problem.



Using OEM version of Vista Home Premium 32 bit + SP1 + all updates + latest patches for every app &

driver



System free of viruses & spyware...



Please help!

 

Did you install iTunes or Quicktime 64-bit. When I installed it also severally damaged my Vista 64-bit, and even deleted all my restore points.

What is "Fraps"? Why do you have Canon useless applications? Do you really need those Canon apps?
You still use GetRight?! You should use Firefox 3 my friend
What is this IGN download?
What is Neat Image, and Paint.NET?
What is @Bios?
What anti-virus do you use, I see no uninstaller?

Did you perform a registry clean up? If so, many registry clean does a horrible job, even at backing up your registry (I don't see how backing a registry can be so hard.. anyway). A great program, for next time, is CCleaner. It's also free.

Is your computer OC'ed? if so, reset the BIOS settings, and try your system again.
What Vista edition are you using?
If all above is fine, then it smells like a broken HDD. Maybe your HDD failed or something damaged the index file.

Try this:
Use Everest http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=3&ps=UE&lang=en. Trial version is fine.
On the top bar, select "Report", a wizard will popup, click on Next.
Then select custom, and uncheck:
- Benchmark
- Direct X
- In software, uncheck everything except startup
- Network
- in Computer, uncheck DMI, IPMI, portable computer

Click on next, then select HTML, wait until it generated this super long report of several hundred of pages, and click on the "Save" button, save it, and try to upload it on a server and show us a link to it. Or PM that you can't do it, I don't know if you can do it, but send me a file in the PM. If you can't I'll give you my e-mail, send it to me there, and I'll upload it to my server and show it here.

 

Fraps is a program for showing the FPS in games

paint.net is a free paint/photo editing program.

I think @bios is a gigabyte bios utility.

He is using bit defender, you can see in a few of the images.

The msconfig start up shows itunes is installed, so perhaps this could be where the problem lies.

What happens if you load into safe mode, if safe mode works then the likelyhood is that its a driver issue, though the problem seems too wierd, seems like its a virus or some sort. Even though bit defender may not have caught it. You could try taking the drive out, putting it in another machine and scanning that drive using the other machine.

 

The Canon apps are for printing photos & editing RAW images off the Rebel XT digicam that I have... those are the latest ones as well (updated from the Canon website)

The PC is NOT overclocked at all

Fraps is a FPS display tool... almost every gamer out there uses it . www.fraps.com

@Bios is the Gigabyte tool for updating BIOS. I use the latest release bios F12 for my motherboard.

I have Everest on my comp... I am generating the report ASAP.

HDD passes SEATOOLS diagnostic... I have checked

 

Does task manager open ok?

You could open task manager, take a picture or jot down all the running processes and google each one to find out what they are. If it seems a bit fishy kill it. That is if you can.

You could also try and kill one thing at a time untill something works, its a bit cumbersom but its cleary a process of some sort that is causing this

 

Your computer is just as lazy as you are.