Group Policy Issues

[Guest]

Hi... Hope someone can help me. I have a laptop - Dell 5100 Inspiron.
Bought it 1 1/2 years ago. Running Windows XP Prof. - sp1a.

I have had issues with it from day one. I am the only one that uses this
computer and it usually sits at my desk hooked up to all etc's. (printer,
camera, etc).

This Domain and Workgroup and Net and Network and local and group, etc etc
etc. i way beyond me - for sure not user friendly. The more I think I know
the less I actually do.

Anyway to get to my issue:

1) I go into services and have tried to change a couple of services to
automatically start up. I shut down and the next day - It's not the way I
saved it. Same with other settings like taskbar personalized settings.

2) I go into Group Policy and it gives me this:

"The Group Policy security settings that apply to this machine could not be
determined.
The error returned when trying to retrieve these settings from the local
security policy database (%windir%\security\database\secedit.sdb) was: The
parameter is incorrect.

All local security settings will be displayed, but no indication will be
given as to whether or not a given security setting is defined by Group
Policy.
Any local security setting modified through this User Interface may
subsequently be overridden by domain-level policies."



3) I also have a couple of (stupid) questions for ya:
Is my operating system windows xp pro or is windows nt? In computer
information is reads nt??????

In task manager: if I am the only user - should all these processes be
running? mine, system, local service, network service. And are processes
like Mcafee running double? mine and system?


I have my account (and I am set up for administrator rights) and a guest
account. I added a user for me with admin rights.


Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am new to newsgroups and only
think I know enough to tweak my computer myself.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Hi... Hope someone can help me. I have a laptop - Dell 5100 Inspiron.
Bought it 1 1/2 years ago. Running Windows XP Prof. - sp1a.

I have had issues with it from day one. I am the only one that uses this
computer and it usually sits at my desk hooked up to all etc's. (printer,
camera, etc).

This Domain and Workgroup and Net and Network and local and group, etc etc
etc. i way beyond me - for sure not user friendly. The more I think I
know
the less I actually do.

Anyway to get to my issue:

1) I go into services and have tried to change a couple of services to
automatically start up. I shut down and the next day - It's not the way I
saved it. Same with other settings like taskbar personalized settings.

I would not mess with service settings unless you have a specific reason and
from knowledgeable
documentation with specific recommendations such as the Windows XP Security
Guide from Microsoft
or the publisher of an application. Settings not being saved could be
related to secedit.sdb corruption.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BC-F434-4CC6-A5A7-09A8A229F118&displaylang=en

2) I go into Group Policy and it gives me this:

"The Group Policy security settings that apply to this machine could not
be
determined.
The error returned when trying to retrieve these settings from the local
security policy database (%windir%\security\database\secedit.sdb) was: The
parameter is incorrect.

All local security settings will be displayed, but no indication will be
given as to whether or not a given security setting is defined by Group
Policy.
Any local security setting modified through this User Interface may
subsequently be overridden by domain-level policies."

It sounds like your secedit.sdb may be corrupt. See the link below on how to
use esentutl.exe to check
for and hopefully repair.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sag_scetroubletn.mspx

3) I also have a couple of (stupid) questions for ya:
Is my operating system windows xp pro or is windows nt? In computer

Windows NT4.0/Windows 2000/2003/XP Pro are all versions of NT. Open System
Properties and look in the
general page to find out your operating system.

information is reads nt??????

In task manager: if I am the only user - should all these processes be
running? mine, system, local service, network service. And are processes
like Mcafee running double? mine and system?

Those other processes are system processes which means that they are spawned
by the operating system
most likely at startup before a user logs on or when a service configured to
start up manually is started.
You can have multiple threads running of a process. You will see more than a
few for svchost.exe. You should regualry
scan for malware and spyware in case there any "bad" processes/applications
running. Msconfig or programs such as
Autoruns from SysInternals will show you start up programs. Services.msc
will show services. --- Steve

 

[Guest]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for getting back with me.

My OS: Windows_NT --- Is that correct?

On the Database : I either don't know where to look or they are missing.
No files under Database. Now what do I do?

Also: I have some conflicts in devise manager and It won't let me change
the resources / I/O. 3 items have conflicts. Could this also be caused by
policy's by chance?

Thanks for not making me feel --- well --- stupid. Val

 

[Steven Umbach]

The operating system is what ever is displayed in System Properties general
page. Windows XP is a version of Windows NT. If you mean the secedit.sdb file it
probably is there. It may be hidden by default. Use the esentutl command as the
link to the article described to check for and check the integrity of that file.
You would need to open the command prompt to enter the command. If do not how to
do that just enter cmd in the run box and select OK. I tend to doubt that
problems shown in Device Manager are related to the local security database
file. Plug and Play should take case of hardware conflicts. Usually Device
Manager problems are due to not having the correct drivers. I have not had to
change any settings for IRQ, etc for years now on many installations of Windows
2000/2003/XP Pro. Sometimes it helps to configure the cmos settings for the
computer hardware/motherboard so that the setting for " is operating system Plug
and Play" to NO. Another thing you may want to try is to use secedit to reset
security levels back to defined default levels as described in the article in
the link below. You can simple copy and paste the command into an open command
prompt window. Misconfiguration of security settings can cause a variety of
problems.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;313222

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose

Since you seem to have a number of problems you may want to consider doing a
repair/upgrade installation of the operating system if you can not otherwise
resolve them or get your computer working satisfactorily. You can do that by
putting the install cdrom in the cd drive while logged onto Windows and making
sure you select the option for "upgrade" when prompted for install type. You
will also need the product key for your install disk. A repair/upgrade install
does require that you go to Windows Update to install all the security updates
when done. If done right your data and applications will be left intact but you
still should backup any important data and media files to a cdrom/DVD first just
in case and do NOT select any option to format your drive which is not done in a
repair/upgrade installation which often fixes a lot of problems with the
operating system. -- Steve