security policy tightened hard for administrator

[computadorka]

Hi

i got this computer im working on, the tech prior, locked it down hard. Bios pw(bypassed), AV uninstall pw(bypassed), didnt know admin password(cracked).

the one thing i couldnt do is the following.

they locked out the C:\ partition from me. i can install stuff, but cant explore the C: drive. I cant go into windowsupdate and update patches. I cant go into some settings in control panel.

i followed several kb articles to reset group policy settings, but i cant figure out what else to doe other than maybe restore or reinstall.


its a winXP sp2 system

 

[Demon10000]

If you reset group policy, it might be difficult to track down the individual policy causing this. I say that because you could have ran the Resultant Set of Policy tool to see what policies were being applied. If you've reset them to default, they are most likely not applying anymore.

The catch with group policy is that once you enable something, setting it to default doesn't always disable it. And even if it does, disabling it doesn't always give you the desired results.

For example, lets say this policy you're looking for is "Prevent Access to C:". By default, it's most likely set to not configured. When you enable it, it prevents access to C:. Now you reset it to default, which is not enabled. The registry key that prevents you from accessing C: isn't removed, the policy is just not applied. In order to undo the setting you actually have to disable it.

 

[bigdogchris]

Rebuild the machine. There's probably some wacky 'tweaks' and you'll never find them all.