One of the frustrations in removing spyware is that some varieties disable the tools you might use to remove it. I ran into one of these that couldn't be removed by the usual spyware tools (see other entries). This one corrupted and blocked the Control Panel. I found that there are a few registry entries that can make or break the Control Panel. Following is how they should look in a working environment.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_ShowControlPanel"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
WebView\BarricadedFolders]
"shell:ControlPanelFolder"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\ControlPanel\Policy\NoControlPanel]
@=""

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1645522239-1580436667-1060284298-
1004\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_ShowControlPanel"=dword:00000002

If you find that regedit is also broken here are some command line references to the various control panel programs. Just copy and paste the desired line into the Start > Run box.

appwiz.cpl
access.cpldesk.cpl
hdwwiz.cpl
inetcpl.cpl
intl.cpl
irprops.cpl
joy.cpl
main.cpl
mmsys.cpl
ncpa.cpl
nwc.cpl
nusrmgr.cpl
odbccp32.cpl
powercfg.cpl
sticpl.cpl
sysdm.cpl
telephon.cpl
timedate.cpl
Firewall.cpl
NetSetup.cpl
wuaucpl.cpl
bthprops.cpl
wscui.cpl
C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\SYSTEM\\MSMAPI\\1033\\MLCFG32.CPL
C:\\Program Files\\Windows Media Connect\\mswmccpl.dll
C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Speech\\sapi.cpl
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\MLCFG32.CPL