control panel "(not responding)"

Question

Win 7 home premium, 63-bit

When I open the control panel from Start and then click on one of the folders within, I often get a "(not responding)" message.  I then close and Windows tries to find a solution (the pop-up box tells me).  I then go back to start (do not collect £200), click on the control panel again and everything works fine.  Not the end of the world, but is there an easy fix, please?

Answer 1

Hey timsturn,

• How long have you had this issue?

Step 1:

Let's first put the computer in clean boot state and check.

To help troubleshoot error messages and other issues, you can start Windows 7 by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This kind of startup is known as a "clean boot." A clean boot helps eliminate software conflicts.

Follow the steps below:

1. Log on to the computer by using an account that has administrator rights.
2. Click Start, type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER to start the System Configuration Utility. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.
3. On the General tab, click Selective Startup, and then click to clear the Load startup items check box. (The Use Original Boot.ini check box is unavailable.)
4. On the Services tab, click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box, and then click Disable all.
5. Click OK, and then click Restart.
6. Check if you still have the issue.

Refer the link below for more details:

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows 7:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Reset the computer to start as usual. After you have finished troubleshooting, follow these steps to reset the computer to start as usual:

a. Click Start , type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

b. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

c. On the General tab, click the Normal Startup option, and then click OK.

d. When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Restart.

Step 2:

Also try deleting temp files and prefetch files. 

To delete temp files, 

Click on start and in search bar type in as %temp% and hit enter. Delete all the files in that folder.

Do the same with prefetch files.

Step 3:

I suggest you try running a malware scan and check what happens. 

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials  

Some malware/spyware/virus that is out on the Internet, will also change system settings, corrupt data, and log invalid registries that will also make annoying errors, as like the ones you are encountering.  You can try a virus scan. Just keep in mind that if your system does contains a virus, the active virus can try to keep the system from installing/using the virus scan correctly. Online Virus scans (sometimes) will not have that problem.  

http://onecare.live.com  - OneCare is Microsoft's Virus Scan.  You can attempt using the OneCare Safety Scanner. That is OneCare's online Scanner. Somtimes it will not launch properly if your system is not under a specific ordinance.

Use the below link to perform  a online full service scan on the computer: 

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Step 4:

If this doesn’t help, let’s check in a new user account.

To create a new user profile:

To create a new profile, you must first create a new user account. When the account is created, a profile will also be created.

1.  Open User Accounts by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking User Accounts and Family Safety (or clicking User Accounts, if you are connected to a network domain), and then clicking User Accounts.

2.  Click Manage another account.  If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3.  Click Create a new account.

4.  Type the name you want to give the user account, click an account type, and then click Create Account.

If it works fine in new account, then your current account might be corrupted.

To fix a corrupt account, please follow the steps in the below link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile

Regards,

Savan – Microsoft Support.

Answer 2

I have the same problem. I went through the troubleshooting process and discovered that with all services checked, and "Load startup items" unchecked, Control panel works just fine. However, when I go back to "Normal Setup," that's when the problem returns. What do I do now?