Solution: Control Panel, Welcome Center or Games are not Opening in Windows Vista

If you are a Windows Vista user and you can't access Control Panel or Welcome Center or can't start Games, then this tutorial will help you.

Many times Windows Vista users face a very strange problem. Whenever they open Control Panel, Welcome Center or start games. A "Windows Explorer" window pops up and disappears. You have no idea why is this weird thing happening?

Don't worry. If you are one of them who are facing this problem then follow these simple steps:

1. Open Service Manager by giving "services.msc" command in RUN or Startmenu Search box.

2. In right-side pane, look for a service "Software Licensing". Double-click on it and make sure its Startup type is set to "Automatic". If its not, then change it to "Automatic" and click on "Start" button to start the service.

3. If its already set to "Automatic", then stop the service and again start it.

4. Thats it. It should solve the problem and you should be able to access Control Panel.

Complete list of AskVG articles

This article was posted in Troubleshooting, Windows Vista.

Share |

38 Comments

fatima

its still not working..
Susie

My problem is just the opposite. I do not want the Welcome Center to open up each freaking time I start up my computer. How do I make it stop auto-opening?
VG

^^ Disable the checkbox given at left-bottom in Welcome Center.
hamid

i tryed what you said but this poped up "microsoft management console. MMC cannot open the file C:/Windows/system32/services.msc. this may be because the files does not exist, is not an MMC console, or was by later version of MMC. this may also be because you do not have sufficient access rights to the file. anyone know what the problem is how do i fix it.
VG

^^ Are you logged in as Administrator? If yes, then it might be possible that the file services.msc has been deleted in your system. Try to repair your Windows installation.
hamid

when i buyed my laptop it already had preinstalled vista so im not sure how to repair it =/
VG

^^ You must have a repair DVD which can be used to repair Windows.
jay

hi vishal...

pls help me...i have a problem with my vista ultimate... i cant access control panel, system restore, device manager(so that i can update my drivers) , personalization(in desktop right-click),

ive tried everything in above but it doesnt work.. ive tried this command "sfc /scannow" and theres a black window that only shows half a second... and when i try to start this:
____________________________________________________________________________
1. Open Service Manager by giving "services.msc" command in RUN or Startmenu Search box.

2. In right-side pane, look for a service "Software Licensing". Double-click on it and make sure its Startup type is set to "Automatic". If its not, then change it to "Automatic" and click on "Start" button to start the service.

3. If its already set to "Automatic", then stop the service and again start it.

4. Thats it. It should solve the problem and you should be able to access Control Panel.
____________________________________________________________________________

it also doesnt work when i try to start the service... and by the way... my vista is 64-bit....and when i installed... it did not ask for a product key(unlike the 32-bit) and it was activated right away... and one thing... my copy of vista is pirated.. does it matter? the time i bought it the vendor did not gave any product key because he said it is activated right away... pls help
jay

and.... vishal.... when i run service.msc and start the service in software licensing ... a small window pop up that says

"Windows Could not Start the Software Licensing service on local Computer.

Error 3: The system cannot find the path specified."

pls help!!!!! thanks
VG

^^ Your problem is different. Its most probably a virus infection. Install a genuine copy. pirated copies contain virus most of the times.