I found this issue to relate to the UserShellFolders area of the registry for the user. If you can wait till tomorrow (11pm in uk) I will dig up the notes I have on this problem. It bugged me for weeks.
Do you use roaming profiles? ------Original Message------ From: Gary Cordell To: NT System Admin Issues ReplyTo: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Devices and Printers Panel does not populate-- intermittant at boot Sent: 28 Apr 2011 22:14 I have a question about the underpinnings of Vista and Win7 that requires some explanation. (And yes, I have tried all of the fixes online for this problem that have been presented so far.) THE PROBLEM: This showed up with Vista/Win7, and I have been tracking it for over a year now. We have about 60 computers in our domain, and about 10 show this problem. Occasionally (intermittently, sneakily) on bootup the Devices and Printers control panel comes up empty— only on some computers-- but once it starts on one it tends to repeat. The empty panel is a symptom—you don’t have to open the D&P panel for this to cause problems. If you try to use a device that should be there but is not (like a printer), it hangs. If you reboot enough it will finally populate (up to 6 reboots). The only consistent workaround I have found is to disable our antivirus during the bootup. (And I have been working with our AV support on this, but it is too intermittent to make much headway). Sometimes it just goes away for a few weeks, but it always comes back. THE QUESTION: Where does the data that is used to populate the D&P panel come from? Is it kept in a file, and if so what is the filename and path? Or is it kept in the Registry? My working assumption for this problem is that the loading of the data for the D&P panel is somehow blocked or lost during bootup. I suspect our proxy server or AD might be involved. I just need to know what to monitor. Thanks, Gary ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin Typed frustratingly slowly on my BlackBerry® wireless device ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
