IE Properties Restricted

[Jamie Katz]

I am running IE 6 SP1 on Win2K SP4. My main account which is in the
Administrators group cannot access IE Properties. I receive the following
message.

"This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this
computer. Please contact your system administrator."

The account has access to all other administrative functions, all areas of
the Computer / User Manager etc. I can even change access, usernames and
passwords, etc. for all accounts including the local Administrator!

The machine has always been kept update with Security Patches, virus defs
etc., has never been infected, and is physically secure in my home. I have a
hardware NAT firewall / router. All inbound ports are block other than HTTP.
I performed a full scan with McAfee and Spybot and can't find anything
suspicious.

It just seems very peculiar and alarming. I'm not sure if it's just a bug or
an actual security intrusion. What can the problem be? Have I really been
hacked by someone?


Thanks in advance for your help!
Katzman

 

[Steven L Umbach]

There seems to be parasites that can cause this. They are not considered viruses and
will not be detected by most virus scan programs. I think if you used SpyBot to
"immunize" your system, that could be the problem but I am not sure. The following
link has tips including registry fixes that may help. Another alternative is to try
using local Group Policy via gpedit.msc and go to user configuration/administrative
templates/Windows components/Internet Explorer where you will see a lot of settings
and sub categories where most if not all are "undefined". You could then try to
enable or disable settings as appropriate to give yourself control to the areas you
can not currently access. --- Steve

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

 

[Jamie Katz]

Steve,

Thanks for your quick response! It was actually the following immunize
setting in SpyBot 1.2 that was causing the problem. Unchecked both settings
and everything is back to normal. I have noticed some general flakiness
since I installed SpyBot. But I guess it's well worth not having pop-ups and
spyware infecting my machine! I'll start to look there first. ;-)

Lock IE start page setting against user changes (current user)
Lock IE control panel from opening within IE (current user)

Thanks again for your kind assistances and the MVP site link, lots of great
links!


Happy New Year!

Katzman...


There seems to be parasites that can cause this. They are not considered
viruses and
will not be detected by most virus scan programs. I think if you used SpyBot
to
"immunize" your system, that could be the problem but I am not sure. The
following
link has tips including registry fixes that may help. Another alternative is
to try
using local Group Policy via gpedit.msc and go to user
configuration/administrative
templates/Windows components/Internet Explorer where you will see a lot of
settings
and sub categories where most if not all are "undefined". You could then try
to
enable or disable settings as appropriate to give yourself control to the
areas you
can not currently access. --- Steve

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm