Vista - Re: HELP!! Totally stumped!!

I forgot to mention that I had already tried System Restore but I only had 4
points to rely on and none of those solved the problem. I found the
Environment keys under the registry ControlSet and tried altering the path
value to what you suggested but that failed as well. I'm still working on
the problem and would appreciate any thoughts no matter how off the wall
they may be.

Chris

"Kerry Brown" <kerry@kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote in message
news:erIUDwTeHHA.4564@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> In the System Properties click on Environment Variables. What is the path
> set to? It should look something like this.
>
> %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem
>
> Just a guess. As Richard posted System restore might work.
>
> --
> Kerry Brown
> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>
>
> "ChrisW" <chris@guamusa.com.us> wrote in message
> news:788BD780-6A76-436D-9BF4-DE37A989BDFA@microsoft.com...
>> I'm running Vista Ultimate and have run into a problem I cannot seem to
>> get around. I've been running this for about a month now and all of a
>> sudden I cannot open Windows Explorer, Control Panel, Appwiz.cpl, Welcome
>> Center, or even pull up the properties on Computer. All of the apps I
>> have installed run just fine. I can also perform searches both locally
>> and on the internet. I'm using Windows Mail to compose this message and,
>> as you can tell, it works just fine. The most common message I get is
>> "Windows cannot access the specified drive, path, or file. You may not
>> have the appropriate permissions to access the item." When that window
>> comes up, sometimes there will be a class id in the title and sometimes
>> not. When attempting to run Welcome Center, I will occasionally receive
>> a rundll32 error.
>>
>> I have attempted to reinstall (upgrade) but because I have PowerShell
>> installed, I am unable to perform that task until it is uninstalled.
>> However, since I cannot run AppWiz, I cannot uninstall PowerShell. I've
>> tried removing all references to that program from within RegEdit but
>> some keys cannot be deleted because of a permissions problem. I really
>> don't want to do a clean install if at all possible.
>>
>> Any suggestions on what I should try next?
>>
>> Chris
>

You don't need to edit the path in the registry directly. You can edit it
here:

Right click on Computer, pick Properties, click on Advanced System Settings,
click on Environment variables

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


"Chris W." <chris@guamusa.com.us> wrote in message
news:A6B78CD6-5307-466E-B7B9-11041A6D3B52@microsoft.com...
>I forgot to mention that I had already tried System Restore but I only had
>4 points to rely on and none of those solved the problem. I found the
>Environment keys under the registry ControlSet and tried altering the path
>value to what you suggested but that failed as well. I'm still working on
>the problem and would appreciate any thoughts no matter how off the wall
>they may be.
>
> Chris
>
> "Kerry Brown" <kerry@kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote in message
> news:erIUDwTeHHA.4564@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> In the System Properties click on Environment Variables. What is the path
>> set to? It should look something like this.
>>
>> %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem
>>
>> Just a guess. As Richard posted System restore might work.
>>
>> --
>> Kerry Brown
>> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
>> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>>
>>
>> "ChrisW" <chris@guamusa.com.us> wrote in message
>> news:788BD780-6A76-436D-9BF4-DE37A989BDFA@microsoft.com...
>>> I'm running Vista Ultimate and have run into a problem I cannot seem to
>>> get around. I've been running this for about a month now and all of a
>>> sudden I cannot open Windows Explorer, Control Panel, Appwiz.cpl,
>>> Welcome Center, or even pull up the properties on Computer. All of the
>>> apps I have installed run just fine. I can also perform searches both
>>> locally and on the internet. I'm using Windows Mail to compose this
>>> message and, as you can tell, it works just fine. The most common
>>> message I get is "Windows cannot access the specified drive, path, or
>>> file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
>>> When that window comes up, sometimes there will be a class id in the
>>> title and sometimes not. When attempting to run Welcome Center, I will
>>> occasionally receive a rundll32 error.
>>>
>>> I have attempted to reinstall (upgrade) but because I have PowerShell
>>> installed, I am unable to perform that task until it is uninstalled.
>>> However, since I cannot run AppWiz, I cannot uninstall PowerShell. I've
>>> tried removing all references to that program from within RegEdit but
>>> some keys cannot be deleted because of a permissions problem. I really
>>> don't want to do a clean install if at all possible.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions on what I should try next?
>>>
>>> Chris
>>
>