Unwanted XP Group Policies

[Guest]

After a recent update, I've lost the ability to change anything in the
Security Center. It says that the items are protected due to settings in
group policy. I've looked this up in the support and it talks about Server
2003 setting the group policy. This computer is not on a LAN nor is it part
of a WAN. Where can I find details about how to undo this global group
policy? I don't want it or need it on this machine.

 

[Guest]

BTW, the exact message that I get is as follows: "For your security, some
settings are controlled by Group Policy". I really need to undo this.

 

[Guest]

Another update, this is an XP Pro machine.

Besides affecting the Security Center, I can't connect another PC to this
machine when I did try to network them. I bought a new PC and connected the 2
through my router, I shared the drive on the old machine, but when I tried to
map it it said I had to supply a username and password. It has some kind of
other security setting. I know this is due this this false group policy
issue. My work arouns was to just share the drive on my new machine and map
that one from the problem machine.

I don't have any viruses or any other nasties on the old machine. I run
several different spyware softare packages. What one doesn't catch and clean
another one will. My AV program is also completely up to date.

Just thought I'd provide more info here. I know I'm not the only one to have
this problem, but most posts just ask about turing on and off the firewall
which can be forecefully done through regedit. What about the netowrking
issue?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Group Policy settings in XP Pro are managed via gpedit.msc. You can run
rsop.msc on your computer to see what Group Policy settlings are enabled.
Group Policy like settings can also be enabled via direct registry editing
though when enabled via GP the GP settings take precedence. Check registry
keys under HKLM\software\policies and HKCU\software\policies for starts
while logged on as an administrator. If you find a key under policies that
you believe may be causing the restriction you can try to delete it and
reboot to see if it helps. Malware is often a cause of GP type restrictions.
The info in the link below may also be of interest.

Steve

http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/security/howto/2006-09-08/

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Hi again. The networking problem may not be related. The fact that you had
to supply a name and password probably means that simple file sharing is
disable on the computer you are trying to access which means that
credentials need to be supplied to authenticate or possibly you are using
stored credentials that do not allow access. The link below explains more on
how to enable/disable simple file sharing.

Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/?ID=307874
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=308007 --- this may also be
helpful