O.K. I had a thread that said I was having problems with opening control
panel and preferences and windows update in VISTA.

Thanks to all of you for your help. Nothing worked. Here's what I did.

I went into "computer" then clicked on "control panel" on the LEFT pane.
It opened only in the left pane. I was able to access the preferences. I
was able to access "windows update" I updated.

This is not a solution to the problem, but you can at least get in somehow.
Try it.
I really hope Microsoft will find a fix for this problem. Please Microsoft
find a fix!
BarbLynne