Problems with Vista Service Pack 1 RC1- might have been caused by user

[Christopher1]

I was wondering if anyone else has had a problem with Vista Service Pack 1 RC 1 where after it installs, a few days later the Control Panel and everything else disappears and when you try to open the Control Panel..... it tries to open but then closes itself.
I have also noticed that since this started happening I cannot print to a computer (IE7 locks up when I tell it to print), the Networking and Sharing page is broken, and I cannot get directly to the Control Panel plugins either.

I honestly think that I did this to myself and that this is not a problem with Vista 1RC1 however. I went poking into places in my Windows folder that I was thinking to myself "I should not be doing this, but I am running out of hard drive space....." and I think I deleted something that was important and caused this problem myself.
I am also getting a Blue Screen driver thing when it starts up every now and again, which seems to be connected to this problem with the Control Panel. The computer that is having this problem has anti-virus software and anti-malware software on it, so I do not think that it has a virus or malware on it (have scanned with Spybot, Ad-Aware, Norton Internet Security, Windows OneCare Online Safety Scanner, and a few other things: haven't found anything).

Does anyone have a way that I can fix this problem without having to go to the 'clean install' route (have a lot of stuff I don't want to lose on my hard drive, and I don't have an external one that I can move the important stuff to) which the 'upgrade install' is disabled with my Windows Vista Install Disc since I installed Service Pack 1 and it knows that a newer installation is installed.
I have used the Upgrade install to fix a few problems before on my computer, and it worked fine, so I am thinking I shot myself in the foot with installing the Service Pack 1 RC 1 because I now cannot get to the Uninstall menu to uninstall it.

 

[Scotteq]

You can try booting to your Vista CD and selecting "Repair Installation"

 

[speedbird]

I didn't have a pleasant experience with service Pack 1 either, but mine was a different issue.
Using Vista has never been that great for me with occasional stability problems and poor performance in games (I have a decent Spec Computer), but after installing the service pack my Vista was even more unstable with constant crashes and felt more sluggish. I then couldn't get back into Vista at all, but the repair feature on the installation disk solved this. I'm not impressed since it made Vista even worse than is was before for me.
I have now removed Vista off of my system and have re-installed XP. XP is just so much nicer to use and games play better.

I know my post is not helpful to your Question, but I just wanted to express my view.

 

[Christopher1]

I have now removed Vista off of my system and have re-installed XP. XP is just so much nicer to use and games play better.

It's your view, but I really think that you should think of looking at it in a neutral light....... the reason you might like XP so much is because you were used to it.
Vista Service Pack 1 has a few problems with it (got a e-mail back from Microsoft saying that my problem was happening to quite a few people for some reason and they were working on it), but it's still better than XP in most regards on my laptop, at least once I turn off Aero, which slowed my computer down like...... some really bad things.

I upgraded my parents PC to Vista this past weekend, and it is running faster, playing games faster (I can run everything in higher settings for some reason, and I didn't change the video card), and is even less 'crash-prone' than XP (haven't had even one application crash even when I was trying to make them crash, once I deleted some of the files in Users/Appdata that were locked in a weird way by the Windows upgrade installer coming from XP Media Center Edition).

I was liking the Service Pack until it did that 'Control Panel disappearing' thing...... which I found out from Microsoft was partially my problem (I had deleted system files that I shouldn't have) and Microsoft's problem (the repair installer doesn't work correctly when trying to repair a Vista Service Pack 1 installation, which I had tried).

Edit: As an update to the "Control Panel problems" thing, I have now realized that I can still get to some of the setting from the 'folder' sidebar in Computer, where you view the drives and storage on the computer in Windows Explorer.
Now, I am beginning to honest think that someone has hacked my computer somehow, because if I blew away some files that Windows Vista needs for the Control Panel, why can I still get to things like "User Accounts" and stuff through that sidebar menu?
I think I am just going to go out, get an external hard drive, and move all my important files on it and then blow away my computer and start from scratch, after writing down all my applications serial and install numbers somewhere.

 

[tomsjim]

It's not SP1 and it's nothing you did by deleting files. The problem you describe is exactly what I have and my machine is brand new! Many others are having the same issue.

There is a MIcrosoft KB article about it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936686/en-us

There is also a long thread where many other people are having the same problem, too: http://forums.microsoft.com/communities/showpost.aspx?postid=1250225&siteid=6&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=4

I don't have the solution yet, as I'm still reading up on it, but it looks like you can simply request a hotfix from Microsoft (why it's not just posted on their website is beyond me): http://forums.microsoft.com/communities/showpost.aspx?postid=1250225&siteid=6&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=4

If you read the long thread on the Microsoft forums, though, some say the hotfix didn't work. And you can't simply download it and try it, you have to request it, and then wait for MS to send it to you. I've requested it, but not received it, so I can't comment from personal experience.

Good luck, and please post with your results.

THanks,
Jim