system
3
Thanks for the advice.
After a bit of reading, the control panel fix is as follows;
The .cpl files for Windows 2000 are located in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder. The default location for this folder is in the C:\Winnt\System32 folder.
- Create a new folder on your desktop called “temp” (without quotation marks). To do this, right click and empty area on your desktop, point to New, click Folder, and then type temp.
- Move all of the .cpl files out of the System32 folder and into the Temp folder that you created.
- Verify that Control Panel opens. Note that Control Panel does not contain icons after you move all of the .cpl files out of the System32 folder.
- Move the .cpl files back into the System32 folder, one at a time, and then open Control Panel after you move each file to verify that Control Panel opens.
- If you move a .cpl file back into the System32 folder, and Control Panel does not open, delete the file, or replace the file with a known, good .cpl file.
I only needed to move the cpl files, open the control panel, and the links automatically refreshed themselves (don’t know how it happened) but everything works now.