Vital items missing

[El Marko]

I recently migrated an XP machine into our 2003 server domain. There are
group policies in effect that govern Windows Firewall and Automatic Updates
via SUS. However, after a week and several "gpupdate" commands, this machine
will not reflect those policies. I attempted to check items in computer
management, but the mmc.exe file is gone. I attempted a System Restore, but
that program will not launch either. Is this a "repair Windows" option in
the reinstallation routine? Or will this even suffice? Maybe a clean
reinstall?

Thanks
mm

 

[Guest]

I recently migrated an XP machine into our 2003 server domain. There are
group policies in effect that govern Windows Firewall and Automatic Updates
via SUS. However, after a week and several "gpupdate" commands, this machine
will not reflect those policies. I attempted to check items in computer
management, but the mmc.exe file is gone. I attempted a System Restore, but
that program will not launch either. Is this a "repair Windows" option in
the reinstallation routine? Or will this even suffice? Maybe a clean
reinstall?

I would first try copying mmc.exe from another working xp machine if you
have one, or extracting it from the xp cd. If that gets you into Computer
Management, see if the System Restore service is running. If it is but you
still can't get it to launch, try launching Search. If it looks abnormal,
this indicates that ActiveX is probably hosed and you are probably looking at
a repair reinstall to fix it. I am pretty sure that ActiveX is required to
install the updates and enforce group policy. I've seen about 3 machines get
into this condition.