Unable to access Explorer, Control Panel

I am all of a sudden unable to access explorer or control panel, am getting "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access the item. My internet connection icon in task bar shows no connections but I am able to access the internet. My Sound icon says the Audio service is not running. Machine will not boot into safe mode, can't access explorer from command line, anti-virus (Panda) will not run, Lavasoft Ad-Aware will not run and have been able run a virus scan from Trend Micro (Housecall) and it found nothing.
I have searched around and tried registration (can't get to it either) SFC/SCANNOW (does not run). have run out of ideas for cause, thanks in advance for any help you may provide.

Welcome to the Seven forums.

Try WDO:
What is Windows Defender Offline?

Did you try the SFC scan this way?
SFC /SCANNOW : Run in Command Prompt at Boot

rescue disks can detect and clean these viruses as it scans your computer wile they are not active.
im sure if you have any virus it would be detected with rescue disk,

but i should say that, the major defect of this scan could be if your windows dll files have infected, they would be deleted in this process, so before that ,Back up your information in drive C (windows drive)

Kaspersky Rescue Disk is a virus removal solution for critical situations. It was designed to be used when regular antivirus software fails in detecting and cleaning a system of various infections.

If you own Kaspersky Antivirus or Kaspersky Internet Security, the Rescue Disk can be recorded directly via these products. If not, the ISO can be burned on a CD/DVD using your disc burner or choice. It can also be placed on a bootable USB device and launched from there.

Here’s how it works: set your system to boot from the CD / DVD/ USB device, insert the disc or the stick and restart the system. After a quick loading process, you are acquainted with the interface of Kaspersky Rescue Disc.

You simply select the objects Kaspersky should process (disk boot sectors, hidden startup objects, or local hard drives), and hit the scan button. The Rescue Disk then delivers a report of all malicious objects found in your system, such as viruses and Trojans, but also adware and other similar software. Infected files can be quarantined, disinfected, or removed.

The Settings menu allows you to configure the current security level, file types, scan optimization (i.e. skip files scanned longer than a given number of seconds), archive scanning, installation packages, and others.

Updates are done on a regular basis, and notifications can be set for malware detection or modifications, obsolete databases, failed tasks, or others.

In conclusion, Kaspersky Rescue Disk is a great way to remove threats that can’t be cleaned by standard antivirus solution. It requires quite the amount of effort (burning the CD / DVD), but it succeeds where other security solutions fail.

IT's a Freeware so take advantage of it
Download from here:
http://download1us.softpedia.com/dl/..._rescue_10.iso
also you can check for AVG:
AVG | Rescue CD | PC Rescue and Repair Toolkit
AVG | Data Recovery | AVG Rescue CD

Norton from here:
Norton Rescue Tools

whatsthatsound said:

I am all of a sudden unable to access explorer or control panel, am getting "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access the item. My internet connection icon in task bar shows no connections but I am able to access the internet. My Sound icon says the Audio service is not running. Machine will not boot into safe mode, can't access explorer from command line, anti-virus (Panda) will not run, Lavasoft Ad-Aware will not run and have been able run a virus scan from Trend Micro (Housecall) and it found nothing.
I have searched around and tried registration (can't get to it either) SFC/SCANNOW (does not run). have run out of ideas for cause, thanks in advance for any help you may provide.

Have you scanned the system with a good antimalware program? If not, I would suggest a scan with MalwareBytesAntiMalware. Visit the following site and download Chameleon;

Malwarebytes : Solve Your Malware Problems With Our Help

HTH