Solved Can't open user accounts, device manager and other areas...

[hayley]

On my daughter's laptop we have Norton Anti-Virus. She only goes to a few sites- she doesn't click on ads, and knows not to download anything without my permission. After Windows updated she began having issues. She can't click to open Network Sharing Center, HomeGroup, or User Accounts. At first I thought she had blocked herself from admin tasks, so we found online the way to open a new admin account, but that doesn't help. She frequently gets a ::{26EE)668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}\9\ message

She also can't open Device Manager. When she tries she gets this message: MMC cannot open file C:\Windows\System32\devmgmt.msc because file does not exist, is not an MMC console, was created by a later version of MMC, or I don't have sufficient access rights.

So I have three guess: corrupt file, virus, or we just accidently somehow locked ourselves out of Windows tasks- is there any hope of fixing this ourselves or do I need to take it in? Oh- we can't do system restore because there were no restore points made before this happened, and she can't get onto the internet because ATT changed my security connections and she needs to log into network to enter new security key. AND we can only get SafeMode to open by doing msconfig in the run box- not by pressing F8 on startup....

Thanks in advance for anyone who has any insight

 

[AnOnuma]

Why all the headache and the runaround? Did all of this just recently start? about not being about to go into safe mode with f8? There are boot cd's available if you know what you're doing. They have free apps on them for virus scans and drive repair and etc... I would try a reputable download location and make an emergency boot cd first. Do a boot scan see if that helps. Of course you'll have to use a public computer or a friends computer to get the software. If not, you can right click on your network icon in your system tray and get to your network properties to change your security key. Try browsing to your windows system 32 folder and right clicking on the file and running as administrator. It's just a thought. Not much of one, but thought I'd throw it out there. Best of luck.

 

[hayley]

Thanks- we know how to change the security key- but she can't open the network and internet area- when she clicks this or user accounts nothing happens.

We were hoping someone would recognize the problem as one they have seen before- all virus scans have come back clean....

 

[hayley]

so no one has anything? thanks for trying...

 

[Cymbal Man Freq]

At some point it's easier to have the Geek Squad restore everything back to factory condition, but to do that every week seems to be an operating system fault.

 

[hayley]

thank you

 

[LittleJay]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html?ltr=C

You also have the option to follow these steps and do a clean re-install of the OS.

 

[Layback Bear]

Your problems could be caused by many things. You mentioned Nortons. It could cause all these problems. Shame on you for not having a restore point and a repair disc. That being said I would remove Nortons using Nortons removal tool for starters. You can find it on line for your particular Symantic product. Then I would install MSE.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
Then update MSE and run a complete scan.
At that point if you are able to get into cmd prompt I would run sfc /scannow.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
Let us know how things go.

 

[hayley]

Thank you Layback Bear!

we couldn't get MSE to install, we couldn't do so much but we tried the SFC scan and that worked! It looks like there was a corrupt file somewhere... you saved me a heck of a lot of money- thank you, thank you!