Icons are missing from Control Panel, or you cannot start Control Panel, the Welcome Center, or games in Windows Vista

On a computer that is running Windows Vista, you experience one or more of the following problems:

• Icons are missing from Control Panel.
• You cannot start Control Panel. When you try to start Control Panel, the screen may flash briefly, but Control Panel does not start.
• You cannot start the Welcome Center. For example, when you type welcome center in the Start Search box, and then you click Welcome Center in the Programs list, nothing happens.
• You cannot start Windows Vista games such as Chess or Minesweeper. When you try to start the games, nothing happens.

These problems may occur intermittently.

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows Vista. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix information

To resolve these problems, install the hotfix that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was first corrected in Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: