SP2 Reset Registry Permissions?

[cpnet]

The registry on my Dad's XP Pro - Dell OEM (member of a workgroup - not a
domain) seems to be buggered. The machine boots fine, but the permissions
on many of the keys seems wrong. A ton of keys have permissions only for
SYSTEM and Administrator. Administrator only has read permissions while
SYSTEM has full control. Also unlike other XP Pro machines I've seen, the
registry keys are set to apply to "this key only" instead of "this key and
all subkeys".

I found one key "HKLM\Software\Wilson WindowWare", where as Administrator I
couldn't view the permissions or owner for the key. I was able to change
the owner to Administrator, and then give Administrator "full control" over
the key.

There's lots of other funny stuff going on but you get the idea.

Dell has told me to re-install the OS etc., but I don't want to do that if I
can avoid it. I have a suspicion that a recent XP critical update is the
culprit of this registry permissions problem, but I can't be sure. My hope
is that if I am able to install XP XP2 on this machine it will re-initialize
most registry key permissions to their proper defaults. Will this occur or
does SP2 leave existing permissions on reg keys alone? If applying SP2
won't fix this machine, is there anything I can do other than re-install the
OS? Is there anything that could have caused this problem?

Thanks,
cpnet

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

The registry on my Dad's XP Pro - Dell OEM (member of a workgroup - not a
domain) seems to be buggered. The machine boots fine, but the permissions
on many of the keys seems wrong. A ton of keys have permissions only for
SYSTEM and Administrator. Administrator only has read permissions while
SYSTEM has full control. Also unlike other XP Pro machines I've seen, the
registry keys are set to apply to "this key only" instead of "this key and
all subkeys".

I found one key "HKLM\Software\Wilson WindowWare", where as Administrator I
couldn't view the permissions or owner for the key. I was able to change
the owner to Administrator, and then give Administrator "full control" over
the key.

There's lots of other funny stuff going on but you get the idea.

Dell has told me to re-install the OS etc., but I don't want to do that if I
can avoid it. I have a suspicion that a recent XP critical update is the
culprit of this registry permissions problem, but I can't be sure.

I know of no Microsoft critical updates that changes any registry permissions.

My hope
is that if I am able to install XP XP2 on this machine it will re-initialize
most registry key permissions to their proper defaults. Will this occur or
does SP2 leave existing permissions on reg keys alone?

SP2 leaves existing permissions on reg keys alone (and if the registry
permissions is messed up, SP2 will most likely fail to install).

If applying SP2 won't fix this machine, is there anything I can do
other than re-install the OS?

How To Reset Security Settings Back to the Defaults
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313222

Note: secedit.exe is not available for WinXP Home

 

[cpnet]

Thanks for the info. I've already actually seen the stuff about re-applying
the default security template, but I also read that this should not be done
on an OEM install of XP Pro (which this computer is). So, it looks like I'm
going to be re-installing the machine from scratch - more time consuming,
but probably safer in the long run.