Just returning the favor, MS Tech Support finally replied and SOLVED the
problem: A CORRUPTED REPOSITORY. I quote below their solution procedure ...
1. Click Start button, type “cmd†in the search box.
2. On the program results list, right click the “cmd.exe†and choose “run as
administratorâ€Â.
3. In the command window, type the following commands and press Enter, one
by one. (Answer "Y" to the query after the first command below executes)
net stop winmgmt
cd /d %windir%\system32\wbem
ren repository repository.old
net start winmgmt
4. Restart the computer
Best regards to all!
"Engel" wrote:
<span style="color:blue">
> Hi Alexander,
>
> Thanks for posting back. That's always a nice gesture when we get back a post
> indicating if the suggestions were helpful or not.
>
>
> Öö(¯`·._.·Ǝøçel·._.·´¯)öÖ
>
>
> "Alexander_Phils" wrote:
> <span style="color:green">
> > To Christopher, Mowgreen [MVP], Engel:
> >
> > Thank you all for the trouble.
> >
> > To Christopher: no it's not. All active links to the Security Center page
> > at the Welcome Center, Control Panel, and at the Help & Supprt Section of
> > Windows Vista are all visible. But when I click on them, I only see HDD
> > activity and then ... nothing. Since the File System checker reports
> > everything is ok, I suspect that only my registry may have been corrupted;
> > all system files may still be intact. Moreover, the System Restore utility
> > could not restore my system to restore points before 13May due to a corrupted
> > registry(?) file that it requires.
> >
> > To Mowgreen [MVP]: I have been using Norton 360 v1 since Aug2007 and just
> > updated to v2 last week. I never had any problems with it and Windows Vista
> > until this. Two virus attacks were blocked by Norton 360 on 12May. It may
> > have affected my Norton 360 v2 and Windows Vista SP1 but I only noticed the
> > problems on 13May, or; the interaction between Windows Vista and Norton 360
> > v2 while responding to the attack may have been the cause. At any rate,
> > Symantec suggested that I re-install v2, and I have. Everything is working
> > fine now, except of course, I cannot access the Security Center although I
> > can access and make changes to the individual components at the Control Panel.
> >
> > Meanwhile, Microsoft Tech Support has not responded yet.
> >
> > To Engel: thanks for the lead. I have taken a gander at
www.blackviper.com.
> > Some pretty powerful stuff there and may be way over my head, but I will
> > pursue that channel if Microsoft Tech Support cannot help.
> >
> > "Alexander_Phils" wrote:
> > <span style="color:darkred">
> > > I've lost access to the Security Center page. All components, i.e.,
> > > Firewall, Defender, etc. are still individually accessible and working fine
> > > with my Norton 360 v2. However all links to the Security Center page:
> > > Welcome Center, Control Panel, and Help & Support no longer work. I've tried
> > > the System File checker and System Restore utilities to no avail.
> > >
> > > Short of reinstalling Windows Vista and its SP1, is there anything else I
> > > can try?</span></span></span>