System Restore, Info ,Help won't launch

Hello,
i think you problem might be that your registry was somehow messed up. i think i will be faster to reinstall rather than try to fix all the different problems. have you checked for viruses. and check your task manager to see if some weird programs are running, closing thses programs might solve some problems.
what OS do you have and have you installed all the updates.
hope this helps GL

Clean up;

Download Adaware free edition : http://www.lavasoft.nu

If you don't have an up to date antivirus system, download AV free edition (excellent!, most ditch NOrton and MacAffee when they get AVG Free)
http://www.grisoft.com

Sounds like you have somethig tying up resources, AdAware should help it out.

Also go to the Accessories menu and run System Clean up, it will delete all Temp files, Cookies, etc. And also get rid f garbage collected over time.

MAKE SURE YOU UPDATE AdAware and do a full scan, remove all entries, reboot and run it again to make sure nothing is repropagating on boot.

After you have completely cleaned up, type click START>RUN and tyoe SFC.EXE then click RUN. SFC (System File Checker) will scan for any missing or damaged system files and replce them from CD or boot partition as needed.

If you still have problems, try reposting to Technical Q&A (link on top nav bar) you will get far more responses than in a discussion forum.

It is a Dell running Win XP Home ED. I have run adaware, did system cleanup the whole works - nothing. Was trying to get to System Information to run File Checker, Registry Checker and even Dr Watson but I can't get to Sys Info. Like I said the hour glass comes up and works on it then nothing. I can't get the Cd-Rom to work to install Virus protection - device manager says it is working okay - it hums like it is going to load then nothing. I can't get Spyware to run at all. This is a computer of a friend that I have fussed at for a long time about not having virus protection. She started having problems so I took it to clean it up and dang! I can't get to anything. Funny thing, I can explore the c drive and go to the Help folder and click on individual help topics and read them but can't get 'Start-Help' to respond. Downloading virus software via dialup is not working - just takes too long. Bizarre!

I agree with rohan_r, I think just starting off with a clean install is the solution to save yourself hours of troubleshooting all the problems it has. But if you like spending alot of time troubleshooting then in addition to oz media's reply I would boot the sytem into safe mode (press f8 when it is booting after post and selecting safe mode) delete all temporary files on the system, uninstall any program that looks suspicious and that the user doesn't need or know what it is there for. Type msconfig from the run menu, then click on startup tab and verify that the programs that are loading with windows at startup are known/wanted programs. See if you can get online and do a virus scan
( http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ )
Then try the sfc command and if your still not happy with the results then boot from the winxp cd and run a repair from the cd. If you end up wiping the drive and reinstalling well at least you gave it a shot.

Good Luck