Access denied to control panel options

[Llonaid]

My laptop has suddenly devided to deny access to several options on my control panel and also an anti Malware program that I have previously downloaded and sucessfully used. A dialogue box appears on screen stating ; "Windows cannot access the specifies device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item"
Can anyone advise why this is suddenly happening, and how I might rectify it!!

[TTG]

Start in safe mode and manually run a full virus scan and malware scan.

[trish432]

This sounds like malware, download malwarebytes,if you don`t already have it, update it and do a full scan.

If you can`t download because of malware, try doing it in safe mode with networking.

If you can`t do that, download,install and update, from another computer, onto a pen drive, then run the full scan from that.

http://www.filehippo....rebytes_anti_malware/

[Huderon]

Downloading Malwarebytes is a good idea if you can get to the site .. but you have to make sure you get the latest updates before running a scan, and whatever has infected your machine might block that. And remember that removing the malware will not change the settings which are blocking you from the control panel options.

You could try Norman to start with http://www.norman.com...upport_tools/58732/en - it is updated daily so you don't need to worry about getting the latest updates. Oh and it does not run in safe mode. running it may clear the malware or may just clear enough to let you use the program you already have.

Avira do a rescue disk which you can get at http://www.free-av.co...ir_rescue_system.html - not sure if it s just for viruses or whether it handles malware as well

if you are still blocked from some things after cleaning your system, RRT is a handy thing to set things back to normal - http://www.sergiwa.co...efile.php?cid=2&lid=1 is where you get the latest version from. It's a nuisance because it will prompt you to buy the whole package, but the bit you want - which will reset the permissions - is free. Install, run once in each user you have on your machine, then uninstall.

[Llonaid]

Many thanks for all your suggestions. Malwarebytes has solved the problem.