Windows Vista includes additional restrictions designed to deter pirated copies, including the ability to disable the Control Panel until you activate. (It can also prevent the launch of any number of programs and installers, limiting the functionality of the computer.) In your case, it sounds like it did not activate successfully during installation (you may have opted not to at the time or it may have encountered a glitch) and (prematurely) locked down your computer. If you can, press Windows + R and enter SLUI.exe into the Run box, pressing Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Local Drive:\windows\system32\ and double-click SLUI.exe. An activation window should then appear...see if it claims a successful activation or prompts you to proceed.
It's also possible that something went wrong during Vista's installation, causing the operating system to become corrupted. If activation is not the issue, I would go back to the Vista DVD, wiping the current partition and reinstalling.
Keep us posted.
John
P.S. It's not wise to include your e-mail address in the open, as spammers will 'harvest' it and fill your inbox. It's more advisable to write name[at)domain(dot]com, or better yet use the E-mail Member function available in your Cnet profile, which is completely anonymous. I have requested that the administrator remove your e-mail address for this reason.
I'm not one to complain, but I have just lost all patience. Finally got all my hardware (EVGA GeForce 640mb, WD Raptor 150gb 10k rpm, Corsair 2gb RAM, Intel 2 Duo Core E6600 2.44 ghz, asus p5w dh deluxe) and windows vista ultimate oem...all from new egg. I have everything hooked up, hdd is connected via sata cables to the red SATA1 on the mobo, Memorex DVD drive is connected to the EIDE cable pin connection on the bottom. BIOS recognizes the hdd as third primary IDE. I'd say I am capable of doing most of the process of install and updating, although the bios setup is a little tricky for me to figure out what to change.
Okay, well on with the main part. Did windows vista install and obviously its a clean hdd so there are no previous versions installed. Entered in the serial and it didn't take long with vista to load. Well, restarted and my first conflict started. Inserted the ASUS disk to load drivers and utilities, recognized the disk, but it wouldn't run the setup. Then I went to install the drivers off the video card disk, it said it couldn't load the drivers on this version of windows. Okay, at this point i'm getting frustrated. So I restart, try to click in control panel, nothing is shown. Right click on desktop to personalize, doesn't open.
Please can anyone help me or does anyone have any advice on where I should go from here. I appreciate any help.
Message was edited by: admin to remove email address
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