No control panel and shortcut issues

Hello!

I am running xp and I cannot open my control panel from start>settings>control panel. When I click it it doesn't do anything. No timepiece etc.

Second, I cannot create a shortcut on my desktop. A message box comes up saying "unable to create shortcut".

Thanks for your help

 

is this a work computer?

 

Drumfu -

Thanks for the reply. It is not a work computer. After I wrote my post I changed the start menu from classic to the "start menu" and now I can see my control panel.

Do you know why I can't see it from the classic menu?

Thanks!

 

It might have been removed. Right click on Start, select Start menu (the XP one), click on Customize right next to it, and you should see an option to re-enable the Control Panel on the Start Menu again.

Also, another way to get to it would be to type in Control Panel in the run menu.

 

ok.

let me try to get you to clarify, cuz i may be misunderstanding you:

are you saying that control panel is "gone" from the system and that you can't get any response from clicking the start button at all?

or was it just a menu visual thing?

if the latter, you can try the taskbar properties; there's several layers of configurability within there; right-click on the taskbar > properties.