Group policy prevents Windows firewall running.

[Guest]

I just installed SP2 on my Sister's laptop from XP Home, however I am unable
to get the Windows Firewall to run. When I go into the Firewall
Recommendation in the Security Center and select "enable now" i get the
message;

"We're sorry. The Security Center could not turn on Windows Firewall. To try
turning on the firewall yourself, go to Windows Firewall in Control Panel. In
the Windows Firewall dialog General tab, select On (recommended), and then
click OK."

so I do what the above says and the green "on" section is greyed out and I
can't click the on box, and at the top there is a blue banner with "for your
security, some settings are controlled by Group Policy".

The computer isnt on any networks and is a standalone home machine with only
dial-up access, I wasn't even aware you could edit group policy on XP Home.
Ive tried going into the Administrator mode, but this loads in safe mode and
I can't alter any security center settings. I would appreciate any ideas of
how to get the firewall running so my Sister doesn't fill it full of worms
and trojans next time she unleashes herself on the internet.

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I unistalled an expired version of Norton before I installed SP2.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

You can not edit Group Policy in XP Home but it sounds like registry entries
are in place that do what Group Policy would. This could be an indication
the computer already has malware and/or spyware and I would be sure to scan
for both in regular and Safe Mode. Be sure to update definitions on any
program you scan with ahead of time. AdAware SE is a pretty good and free
program to try out if she does not have one yet. See the last link below on
registry entries that may cause this behavior and you could logon as a local
administrator and use regedit to remove those two registry keys. --- Steve

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ --- AdAware SE link
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx
--- Protect Your PC tips and links to other valuable information on viruses
and spyware.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/depfwset/wfsp2ngp.mspx

The registry keys to add to disable Windows Firewall for both the domain and
standard profiles are the following:

. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall
\DomainProfile \EnableFirewall=0 (DWORD data type)

. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall
\StandardProfile \EnableFirewall=0 (DWORD data type)

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Reset the Windows Firewall Policy settings to defaults:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/resetfwpol.htm

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com


I just installed SP2 on my Sister's laptop from XP Home, however I am unable
to get the Windows Firewall to run. When I go into the Firewall
Recommendation in the Security Center and select "enable now" i get the
message;

"We're sorry. The Security Center could not turn on Windows Firewall. To try
turning on the firewall yourself, go to Windows Firewall in Control Panel.
In
the Windows Firewall dialog General tab, select On (recommended), and then
click OK."

so I do what the above says and the green "on" section is greyed out and I
can't click the on box, and at the top there is a blue banner with "for your
security, some settings are controlled by Group Policy".

The computer isnt on any networks and is a standalone home machine with only
dial-up access, I wasn't even aware you could edit group policy on XP Home.
Ive tried going into the Administrator mode, but this loads in safe mode and
I can't alter any security center settings. I would appreciate any ideas of
how to get the firewall running so my Sister doesn't fill it full of worms
and trojans next time she unleashes herself on the internet.

Thanks.