Vista - Control Panel not opening

I have vista home edition 32 bits. My control panel doesn't open. A screen opens then closes. I also can't get to the properties from right clicking my computer. I can't update windows. Any suggestions?

I have experienced this same problem in the past with Vista 64 and Vista 32 Bit. The bizarre thing is it would happen right after defragging.

With SP1/RC I have not experienced this problem.

Where do I get SP1/RC for the 32 bit?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9de6260e-4275-482d-9524-de850c4dd91c&DisplayLang=en

Icons are missing from Control Panel, or you cannot start Control Panel, the Welcome Center, or games in Windows Vista
first try this hotifx...it should work...if not ...try upgrading to vista sp1 if you are interested..the link is provided below

Windows Vista SP1 RC Standalone Public Release

Control panel wont open

I had this issue and it was solved by opening the services console (Start --> Run --> "services.msc") and stopping the following services (will also stop ReadyBoost):

SL UI Notification Service
Software Licensing Service

Then start both back up starting with Software Licensing Service.

Obviously this is not a permanent fix to the problem, but should allow you to get into the control panel to do what you need to.

Oddly enough this stopped occuring for me when I updated my nVidia drivers.

I tried this but it's now showing up in my windows update. Whenever it tries to search for an update, it says "Error found Code 80070426" The hotfix didn't do anything. I tried to run the hotfix again it says that it doesn't apply to my system.

Both have a service status of being stopped. So I was going to turn them on then turn them off. However, I got the following error messages.

With the SL Notification service and it gave me an error saying "Error 0xC0000022 Access Denied. A process has requested access to an object, but has not been granted those access rights."

Tried it with Software licensing service and it said "Windows could not start the software licensing service on local computer. Error 0x80070005 Access is Denied."

It would be worth checking for any corrupt system files, see the following link for a "How To" - Check Sysem Files

Try to boot into safe mode and change the startup type of each of those two items to "Automatic" .

Also, you are an administrator on your PC, correct?