I manage a small windows 2000 domain with a mix of win2k and xpsp2 machines.

Starting around the begining of april the xp machines lost the search
function, the msi installer would not run and hyperlinks in email messagesdid
nothing amongst other things.
I have found that the symptoms are described exactly in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274696
but this apparently only applies to win2k and when I run dcomcnfg.exe it
just closes when trying to expand the computers folder in the left hand pane.

I have found the I can restore normal functions by disjoining the pc from
the domain and then rejoining it but the problems reoccur after a few days.

I have installed xpsp3 on twoof the pcs but the problem still happens.
I dont think it is malware related as the machines all have uptodate av and
as a diagnostic I took a hard disk ofsite as scanned it in another pc using 4
diffents programmes.

Any Ideas anyone ?

mike

--
Mike

It sounds to me like Registry Permissions errors.

Aaron Stebner's WebLog Solving setup errors by using the SubInACL tool to
repair file and registry permissions:
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archi...04/739820.aspx

HOW TO Reset Security Settings Back to the Defaults:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;313222
--
Was this helpful? Then click the Ratings button. Voting helps the web
interface.
http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales...eAPostAsAnswer
Mark L. Ferguson
..

"Mike Osbourn" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:89C7E389-67B6-48CC-A8B4-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I manage a small windows 2000 domain with a mix of win2k and xpsp2
> machines.
>
> Starting around the begining of april the xp machines lost the search
> function, the msi installer would not run and hyperlinks in email
> messagesdid
> nothing amongst other things.
> I have found that the symptoms are described exactly in
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274696
> but this apparently only applies to win2k and when I run dcomcnfg.exe it
> just closes when trying to expand the computers folder in the left hand
> pane.
>
> I have found the I can restore normal functions by disjoining the pc from
> the domain and then rejoining it but the problems reoccur after a few
> days.
>
> I have installed xpsp3 on twoof the pcs but the problem still happens.
> I dont think it is malware related as the machines all have uptodate av
> and
> as a diagnostic I took a hard disk ofsite as scanned it in another pc
> using 4
> diffents programmes.
>
> Any Ideas anyone ?
>
> mike
>
> --
> Mike