im on fall break and back at home to do absolutely nothing... luckily, i have planetside on my parents computer, so i thought i'd jump on and pass the time. however, im not only having problems just starting the launchpad, but things in general are a bit sketchy.

first off, both my parents profiles are allegedly fine -- no problems reported with anything. however, on my account, i am unable to change a lot of appearance settings.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1511/desktopdo9.jpg (sorry, but it wont let me make it clicky)
there is a lovely picture of my desktop. as you can see, i was able to change the color of the taskbar, but i cannot change the background image/color, the setup and location of the icons, or any mouse appearance settings.

as if thats not sketchy enough, when i try to run launchpad, i get the following message every time:


i am a computer administrator, so its not an issue with system rights. they have norton installed with a current subscription that is updated with the most recent definitions. its a very new computer that worked fine the last time i was on it (a couple months ago), so im not quite sure whats going on now.

anyone know what might be wrong and how to fix this? it seems awfully virusy, but it seems to only be affecting my profile (granted, i dont think my parents mess around with their appearance settings much, if any at all).

teach me your ways 

i had a similar suspicion. i continued to poke around in nortons workings to see if i could find anything about allowing programs, etc. curiously enough, while doing that, after having done nothing, i tried to connect again, and voila, it connected (after norton asked if i wanted to allow it).

norton is so fickle.

however, this doesnt explain the inability to change any appearance settings. this normally wouldnt be such a pain, except that i enjoy having a rather sensitive mouse so that i can go from one corner of the screen to the other in one sweeping motion, not the metronomical trek it currently requires.

What's the industry's top program?

i agree; however, most of the industry is aimed at the older generations that still cant find the "any key." so some of their tools are understandable, but norton is quite a load for the pain it causes.

also, i've still not found a way to change most of the appearance settings. having the standard mouse speed is really skating my contentions; has anyone ever heard of issues with changing desktop images, icon arrangement, mouse settings, etc?