Control Panel / Perfomance and Maintenance / System on Win..

When attempting to open ... Control Panel / Performance and Maintenance
/ System .... I get "Control Panel Not Responding" repetitively
wheneverI click on System in this sequence. Can anyone provide specific
guidance on How to Resolve ... or How to Download Corrections. I have a
registered Win XP SP2 on my system ... but I suspect something's gone
wrong in it lately. The system (purchased new with its original
software) is about four years old ... and this problem has only been
ooccurring in the past 60 days

You could try TweakUi. Download TweakUI, one of the MS powertoys, from
here: [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp"]http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp[/URL]

In TweakUi select My Computer, Control Panel. You can see a complete
list of Control Panel extensions. The one you are interested in is
sysdm.cpl. Check the box before to display or uncheck to hide and click
on Apply and OK.

It quite common for malware to attack the means of restoring the
computer and if desk.cpl is missing from the list in TweakUi it would
not be a surprise. The main copy of sysdm.cpl is to be found in
c:\windows\system32 and there is a backup copy in
c:\windows\system32\dllcache. Using Windows Explorer check to see if one
or both are present. You most likely need to enable Show hidden files.

Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings and
verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is checked
and "Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked. You may need
to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make certain that
the box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked.
Next in Windows Explorer make sure View, Details is selected and then
select View, Choose Details and check before Name, Type, Total Size, and
Free Space.