Grrr...Help Me Fix WindowsXP GUI

[Michael]

A few months ago I started a position at this small company. The previous
guy configured the desktop of one of the monitoring servers in a truly
heinous fashion. He did things such as:

- Removed the start bar altogether
- Desktop items are completely hidden
- Removed the ability to right-click
- God knows what else

Anyway, the server has some pretty important information and we can't safely
format the box and start from scratch so what I want to know is....what
registry keys do I need to set so that the Explorer shell is back to
out-of-the-box standards. Like is there a tree that I can export from a
server that I like and in turn import onto this server that would make
everything usable again?

Thanks guys. ;-)


Michael

 

[Nepatsfan]

First off, it would be helpful to know the following because without this
info, I'm doing a lot of guessing:
What Operating System is installed on this machine, XP Pro or Server 2K3?
Are you logged on with an account that's a member of the local
administrators group?
Is this machine a domain controller, a member server within a domain, a
stand alone server or an XP box that's performing some server function?
Do you have a domain set up?
Can you get Task Manager started by hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL? From there you
might be able to go to File -> New Task and run some useful applications.

From what you've posted, I'd say he used a group policy to make these
changes.
There's probably a better way to find out exactly what's going on but the
first thing that comes to mind is that you should run gpresult.exe on this
machine. Without a Start button, the only way I can think of to do that is
to use Task Manager to start a command prompt window (File -> New task ->
cmd.exe). Then enter "gpresult.exe /z >c:\gp.txt" (leave a space before and
after /z but lose the quotes).
This will create a text file at the root of your C drive that you can open
by going through the Task Manager routine and entering C:\gp.txt. Look for
clues in the two sections titled "Applied Group Policy Objects". Post back
if you find anything useful.

If he used a group policy to create this problem, it should be a simple
matter of applying the appropriate default security template to get things
back to normal.

Nepatsfan

 

[Michael]

First off, it would be helpful to know the following because without this
info, I'm doing a lot of guessing:
What Operating System is installed on this machine, XP Pro or Server 2K3?

Windows XP Pro

Are you logged on with an account that's a member of the local
administrators group?
Yup.

Is this machine a domain controller, a member server within a domain, a
stand alone server or an XP box that's performing some server function?

It's an XP box that's performing a server function, namely collecting SNMP
data from our production and test environments.

Do you have a domain set up?
No.

Can you get Task Manager started by hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL? From there you
might be able to go to File -> New Task and run some useful applications.

Yes I can. This is how I do things like spin up a command prompt or MMC.

From what you've posted, I'd say he used a group policy to make these
changes.

My thoughts as well.

There's probably a better way to find out exactly what's going on but the
first thing that comes to mind is that you should run gpresult.exe on this

[snip]

I'll do all this in a few minutes....

If he used a group policy to create this problem, it should be a simple
matter of applying the appropriate default security template to get things
back to normal.

THIS is a brilliant idea. I haven't checked yet, but I think that you might
have the right answer here.

Thank you, PatsFan.

[snip]


Michael

 

[Nepatsfan]

If you can run gpedit.msc you should be able to undo whatever settings he
changed. Once you get the Group policy window open highlight the
Administrative Template branch under User Configuration. Then go to View ->
Filtering. Put a check in the box "Only show configured policy settings".
You're probably going to find that at the very least the following have been
enabled.

Windows Components\Windows Explorer\Remove Windows Explorer default context
menu (No right click)
Windows Components\Desktop\Hide and disable all items on the desktop

Highlight them and hit enter. Then change the setting to Not Configured.

Any items that were enabled should be switched back to not configured.
Follow the same procedure under the Computer Configuration section. Once
you've cleaned this up. Log off and back on. See what is and is not working.
Hopefully, everything's back to normal.

To finish up run gpedit.msc again. Right click on the Administrative
Templates line. Select Add/remove templates. In the box that's displayed you
should see five entries; conf, inetres, system, wmplayer, and wuau. These
are the default adm files that should be present. If any are missing, it
wouldn't hurt to put them back. Do this for both the Computer and User
configurations.

Nepatsfan

First off, it would be helpful to know the following because without this
info, I'm doing a lot of guessing:
What Operating System is installed on this machine, XP Pro or Server 2K3?

Windows XP Pro

Are you logged on with an account that's a member of the local
administrators group?
Yup.

Is this machine a domain controller, a member server within a domain, a
stand alone server or an XP box that's performing some server function?

It's an XP box that's performing a server function, namely collecting SNMP
data from our production and test environments.

Do you have a domain set up?
No.

Can you get Task Manager started by hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL? From there you
might be able to go to File -> New Task and run some useful applications.

Yes I can. This is how I do things like spin up a command prompt or MMC.

From what you've posted, I'd say he used a group policy to make these
changes.

My thoughts as well.

There's probably a better way to find out exactly what's going on but the
first thing that comes to mind is that you should run gpresult.exe on
this

[snip]

I'll do all this in a few minutes....

If he used a group policy to create this problem, it should be a simple
matter of applying the appropriate default security template to get
things
back to normal.

THIS is a brilliant idea. I haven't checked yet, but I think that you
might
have the right answer here.

Thank you, PatsFan.

[snip]


Michael

 

[Alex Nichol]

Anyway, the server has some pretty important information and we can't safely
format the box and start from scratch so what I want to know is....what
registry keys do I need to set so that the Explorer shell is back to
out-of-the-box standards. Like is there a tree that I can export from a
server that I like and in turn import onto this server that would make
everything usable again?

It has probably been done by using Group Policies (run gpedit.msc and
explore). These often result in registry entries made at

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies

Exporting/importing would not be directly useful as an import does a
merge, which leaves added values as they were, and the Explorer -
Advanced also contains information that you would probably not want to
reset