Firewall and group policy mess !

[Guest]

Hi - I am a 60 year old woman who is attempting to turn on my pc firewall and
to download Windows Live One Care.

When I click the firewall option to turn it on as prompted by the security
center , I click on it and a screen says : Your firewall is turned off. Your
netowrk administrator is using Group Policy to control these settings. I also
accessed the firewall via control panel and receive the same message.

I also want to download Windows One Care and when I reach Step 2 , I am told
: Active X component failed to load. You do not have administrative
privileges on this computer and therefore cannot download and install new
software.

I asked this question somewhere here and was told to read a website that has
me going into system registry and changing things. I don't feel compfortable
doing this. What if I type in incorrect info and mess everything up ? I was
also told to back up "something" prior to making changes .....arghhh. I was
also advised to delete cookies and to reset default settings .

Is there another way to change the group policy thingy ? I am not part of a
network just my one Dell pc.

Oh - it seems maybe this problem started when I updated IE but I use MSN
Explorer as default since MSN is my ISP ( dial up only in rural area). Can I
remove IE ? Would this help ? Would there be a conflict between the browsers ?

Also on Tuesday , I received the monthly update from Microsoft for the
malicious software removal tool. Seems things mights have gone awry then too.

What should I do ?

 

[C.Joseph Drayton]

Hi - I am a 60 year old woman who is attempting to turn on my pc firewall and
to download Windows Live One Care.

When I click the firewall option to turn it on as prompted by the security
center , I click on it and a screen says : Your firewall is turned off. Your
netowrk administrator is using Group Policy to control these settings. I also
accessed the firewall via control panel and receive the same message.

I also want to download Windows One Care and when I reach Step 2 , I am told
: Active X component failed to load. You do not have administrative
privileges on this computer and therefore cannot download and install new
software.

I asked this question somewhere here and was told to read a website that has
me going into system registry and changing things. I don't feel compfortable
doing this. What if I type in incorrect info and mess everything up ? I was
also told to back up "something" prior to making changes .....arghhh. I was
also advised to delete cookies and to reset default settings .

Is there another way to change the group policy thingy ? I am not part of a
network just my one Dell pc.

Oh - it seems maybe this problem started when I updated IE but I use MSN
Explorer as default since MSN is my ISP ( dial up only in rural area). Can I
remove IE ? Would this help ? Would there be a conflict between the browsers ?

Also on Tuesday , I received the monthly update from Microsoft for the
malicious software removal tool. Seems things mights have gone awry then too.

What should I do ?

Hi Lady Tex,

It sounds to me like you are trying to make these changes from a
'limited' user account. What you want to do is make the changes via
an 'administrator' account.

Since you say this is a standalone computer and not on a network, I
am going to assume that who-ever set the machine up for you set you
up with a limited user account so that you couldn't accidentally
make any serious changes/mistakes.

Let's hope that whoever set up the computer did not set a password
on the system administrator account.

You will want to print this e-mail so that yo can follow the
instructions off line.

1. Reboot the computer;
For WinXPhe -- press F8 and go into 'Safe Mode' when prompted for
a user name type 'administrator' and leave the password field
blank.
For WinXPpe -- When you get to the login screen press
[CTRL]+[ALT]+[Del]. Again type the user name 'administrator' and
leave the password empty

2. Now that you are in the administrator account. Go to <Start>
<Settings> <Control Panel> and chose <User Accounts>.

3. Create a new user account and give it administrative privileges.
Please make sure to set a password for this account.

4. Reboot the computer and go into the new account you created and
try doing the install/maintenance. You should now be good to go.

Just as an aside, if you keep confidential data on your computer,
you really should put a password on the system administrator account.

I don't want to start a flame-war, but one of the things that you
might want to think about is what type of account you want to use
for day-to-day operations. Personally, I use an administrator
privilege account since I do a lot of changes and maintenance on my
machine. If you do very little of that, then a limited user account
may be the way to go. Just remember that with the power of an
administrator account comes more ways to mess up your system.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

"When hope is lost . . . the spirit dies."
-- Lao Tzu

http://blog.tlerma.com/

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info - I am already listed as administrator and have been
since I set up my new Dell three years ago.

I've never had this problem before and I am puzzled why my pc thinks I am
now part of a network .

The only references to group policy that I have found online refers to XP Pro.

Would this problem occur from malware ?

 

[WTC]

Thanks for the info - I am already listed as administrator and
have been since I set up my new Dell three years ago.

I've never had this problem before and I am puzzled why my
pc thinks I am now part of a network .

The only references to group policy that I have found online
refers to XP Pro.

Would this problem occur from malware ?

Yes this problem is from malware.

Type the following in the Run dialog box on your Start Menu.

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall"

Now restart your computer and see if Windows Firewall is now working.

 

[Guest]

Excuse my ignorance , do I type in :
reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall"

The entire sentence as shown ? Including quotes and the reg delete ????

 

[C.Joseph Drayton]

Thanks for the info - I am already listed as administrator and have been
since I set up my new Dell three years ago.

I've never had this problem before and I am puzzled why my pc thinks I am
now part of a network .

The only references to group policy that I have found online refers to XP Pro.

Would this problem occur from malware ?

Hi Lady Tex,

I am not a malware pro, but theoretically yes it is possible.

Looking at your original post, my next thought is that you loaded a
program like WinXP Security Console (I use that on my computer), and
it sets policies.

Could you tell us the software you have loaded for say a week before
the problem started.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

"When hope is lost . . . the spirit dies."
-- Lao Tzu

http://blog.tlerma.com/

 

[Guest]

Hmm... I don't think I loaded any new software but I did uninstall McAfee and
Webroot spyware because I wanted to download Windows One Care and Windows
Defender. My two teen daughters, however, visit my space and other sites.

 

[Guest]

Oh ! After I uninstalled McAfee and webroot , I installed ZoneAlarm Free
when the firewall thing started acting up and AVG free - I uninstalled Zone
Alarm because it drove me nuts with all of the pop-ups.

 

[WTC]

Yes, type in the full sentence including quotes and reg delete.

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall"

A command prompt window will appear to confirm the deletion of the
WindowsFirewall key if the key exists. Press Y to confirm, then
restart/reboot your computer.

 

[C.Joseph Drayton]

Oh ! After I uninstalled McAfee and webroot , I installed ZoneAlarm Free
when the firewall thing started acting up and AVG free - I uninstalled Zone
Alarm because it drove me nuts with all of the pop-ups.

Hi Lady Tex,

Since I know that ZoneAlarm Pro (don't know about the free version)
monitors for certain types of malware, it could be that a remnant of
ZoneAlarm is still on your system and 'protecting' you <vbg>.

Don't actually change your registry, but go into regedit and do a
search for ZoneAlarm components if they are still there and the keys
are active you may have to contact ZoneLabs for a tool that will
'completely' uninstall ZoneAlarm.

Just out of curiosity, what conflict were you having between
ZoneAlarm and AVG? I use ZoneAlarm Pro and AVG Free v7.5 with no
problems at all on three different laptops.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

"When hope is lost . . . the spirit dies."
-- Lao Tzu

http://blog.tlerma.com/