I came up here because I looked exactly for a solution for the error you
described here. I did more investigation and found a MS patch.
My son had this error exactly as described here:
'Icons are missing from Control Panel, or you cannot start Control
Panel, the Welcome Center, or games in Windows Vista'
(
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936686/en-us)
follow the link to the resolution in the KB article:
'Error message during Windows Vista startup if the Nero InCD program is
installed and if the \"Special pool\" feature is enabled in the Driver
Verifier utility: \"Stop 00000050\"'
(
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929637/en-us)
Microsoft is offering a Patch which is only available thru support or
Premier site. Since I have a premier account I was able to download the
patch and solve the problem!
kind regards
turti