[joj]

Hello everyone, I was hoping to get some help. My boyfriend has shown me his Vaio Laptop with Vista and says he had a request pop-up about Windows explorer. Thinking it was Internet Explorer he hit deny and now trying to access any application or the control panel brings up the following message:

'Windows cannot access the specified device path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to acess the item.'

He has an administrator account and I can't see anything that looks like a virus - it seems like something windows related. I didn't see what he clicked and I have a Mac at the moment so I have no idea if it is a common problem or where to start on this - Vista looks different to Windows 98 that I remember! I have a feeling it is either very simple or very complicated...

Thanks for reading. Jo

[lunarlander]

What program issued the question ? ( to which he chose deny )

[joj]

Thanks for your reply

This is the main problem - he has no idea what it was. I know he has a security programme installed (I will post below when I can look at his laptop again) but he said he glanced at it and couldn't even describe what colour box it was I have managed to open firefox via a link from the help and support section but most programs are disabled as previously described - I can't run anything at the moment so diagnostic tools etc. are no help either

[lunarlander]

Try booting into Safe Mode ( repeatedly press F8 after the bios memory counting screen ) See if programs work there. If so, then go to control panel and remove that security program.

If that fails, boot a Vista DVD and do a repair and see if that helps.