Disappearing Control Panel Icons?

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acidosmosis

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The boss has a PC in one of his offices at his medical practice (he is a medical doctor), and the icons in the Control Panel have disappeared. I took a look at it one day for about 10 minutes, but was not able to figure anything out. I have never seen anything like this happen before and the only thing I can think of right off is to do a re-install of Windows which may re-add those icons back in.

Other than reinstalling Windows, what method would you suggest?
 
You could try TweakUI (a version for XP and another version for the other Windows OSes). There are two areas you can try, Control Panel wher you can select which Icons are enabled to appear in CP and Repair where you can select Rebuild Icons. Another Idea: you should search for *.cpl (control panel) to make sure they're there and in the right folder. If they're not then copy them from another system that has them. Also I think an Administrator can hide/block/remove them from a users profile.
 
Also with tweakUI there is an option to turn not display certain control panels. Maybe get tweakUI turn off them all, hit apply, then turn them all back on.

Just a suggestion.
 
I had that same problem recently, but I didn't do anything and they strangely reappeared later. I don't exactly know when they disappeared, or why (maybe after a windows update), but it fixed itself. :confused:

PS: I know that doesn't help any, but I thought I'd just throw it in anyway.

Here's a link on the subject ...

Find those missing Control Panel icons
 
Windows XP or 2000, perhaps? Windows 98.. Me?

With Windows XP or 2000, I would try running the repair (XP/2000 installation disc). For Windows 98, running system file checker may help (sfc.exe), or restoring an older version of the 98/Me registry could fix your problems (scanreg.exe)
 
Well, it isn't my PC and the only time I ever used it was to look at it and see what was wrong for about 5 minutes. That was about 2 months ago and the boss was asking me about fixing it again. I'm not sure what version of Windows is on it, but I'll try these suggestions and see what happens.
 
If you need more information on how to use any of those programs, please do ask. I posted it in a hurry and made the assumption that you are probably familiar with these tools. SFC and SCANREG can be accessed in Start/Run
 
Folder Options will fix it

Open the Control Panel (or any folder), then from the menu bar select 'Tools', 'Folder Options'

Click on the 'View' tab. The second box should have a check mark. If it does, take it out and apply. Then put it back and apply.

HTH
 
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