Unable to open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel

all of a sudden I cannot open Unable to open Add or Remove Programs in the
Control Panel. In fact a number of of items fail to open, such as:

Add Hardware
Mouse
Speech

and a number of others. What is going on? Can anyone help?

What happens if you go to Start > Run and type in

appwiz.cpl

Thanks

That alowed me to remove what I needed, but I still cannot get into it via
the control panel!

That allowed me to remove the programmes ok, thanks, but I cannot not access
via the control panel. Any further ideas?

Click Start => Run and type in "regedit" {without the quotes}
Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load

In the right-hand pane, delete all the Values whose data value is set
to "no"

[saycell]

I know this is a REALLY old post but i have the same problem and when i go to start> run> appwiz.cpl it takes me to the Add\Remove Programs list, however when i tried to go to the link below and typed regedit.exe in Start> Run it asked me which program i would like to open it.

i've tried them all, does anyone know which program i should use or shouldn't this be happening, if not, any ideas on what i can do??
i appreciate your help!

[mahesh_99493]

I cannot Unable to open Add or Remove Programs in the
Control Panel. In fact a number of of items fail to open, such as:

Add Hardware
Mouse
Speech
and a Dialouge box is coming that "PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR" CAN ANY ONE HELP ME

[Expertz]

Originally Posted by mahesh_99493

"PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR" CAN ANY ONE HELP ME

Are you logged in as admin? Normally if are you not then to to open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel you will have to get admin priviledges from the admin of your pc. I suppose you are logged in in your user account with less priviledges and cannot install or remove or modify any software, even any access.

[bitras]

Originally Posted by expertz

Are you logged in as admin? Normally if are you not then to to open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel you will have to get admin priviledges from the admin of your pc. I suppose you are logged in in your user account with less priviledges and cannot install or remove or modify any software, even any access.

Dear friend!
Ihave the same problem. But I logged in as Admin. but I can't open ADD and Remove Programs. More Over, even I tried to right click on the desk top, i faced the same message("consult system Admin"). Additionally, the Settings/contol panel menu items is not seen on the Start Menu.what would happen to the system.
Please help me
OS is Windows XP
system processor is Intel Dual Core 5400

[monsitj]

It might be possible that your computer is having the malware or spyware infection because of which the system file got corrupted and you are getting this issue. I will first advise you to install any latest updated antivirus program and then update it with the latest virus definition and run system scan to detect infection and clear the infection. So if you are having this kind of issue then go with the same and see whether this is working to resolve your issue.

[gudway]

Computer= Compac V6120US Laptop Winows XP

ran %systemroot%\system32\appwiz.cpl
appwiz.cpl
regedit

nothing helped
Ran Eset virus/mallware zapper - all=ok

Stil cannot open add/remove programs

[EINSTEIN_007]

Originally Posted by gudway

Computer= Compac V6120US Laptop Winows XP

ran %systemroot%\system32\appwiz.cpl
appwiz.cpl
regedit

nothing helped
Ran Eset virus/mallware zapper - all=ok

Stil cannot open add/remove programs

Are you logged in as admin? Can you please specify in detail what kind of problem you are facing? You can try to fix this problem by going to the microsoft online Fix it for me section. To fix this problem automatically, click the Fix it button or link here. Click Run in the File Download dialog box, and then follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.