Can't access anything in control panel.

I can't access anything in my control panel. This is the
pop-up that I get:
"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or
file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access
the item."

This is my home computer and this pops up whenever I click
on anything thats in the control panel. Please help. I
don't know what to do about it.
Thank you,
Michael

Michael,

From the message you report and that you can't access the control panel
suggests you may be infected by the CoolWebSearch parasite.

See Variant 24. CWS.Control at
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html and also
http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/c/cws.asp.

Download and use CWShredder, merijn's removal tool from either:
http://www.zerosrealm.com/downloads/CWShredder.zip
or
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip

You may also need to replace control.exe and rundll32.exe with new copies.

Control.exe is contained in WIN_16.CAB and Rundll32.exe in WIN_17.CAB of the
Win Me cab set and can be restored using MSConfig | General | Extract File ...
and following the prompts. The "cab" files are in the Win9x folder on the Win
Me CD and/or in a sub-folder of Windows\Options. See MS KB129605 - "HOW TO:
Extract Original Compressed Windows Files"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=129605).
--?
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Michael wrote:

I can't access anything in my control panel. This is the
pop-up that I get:
"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or
file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access
the item."

This is my home computer and this pops up whenever I click
on anything thats in the control panel. Please help. I
don't know what to do about it.