Can't open anything in WinXP (IE, docs, etc...)

[venomva]

Happy Holidays all,

I let a friend use my laptop over the weekend. Now when I try to open any program (word, IE, etc..) I get the following message.

The action was terminated due to restrictions on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

I tried creating a new admin account in XP, logged in with that one and I still get the same message. Please help.

Thanks in advance,

V

[b1tchm4gn3t]

any chance of a system restore helping?

[venomva]

I tried that also, nothing.

[redwudz]

If your laptop is running XP Pro, you might go into the Group Policy Editor and see if you can change it there. Select from the Start-menu "Run" and enter : GPEDIT.MSC

With XP home, I'm not sure how to fix it. Probably a registry mod if there is no easy fix. You could look at the MS site, but it may take some digging.

[venomva]

change what in the editor?

[thevoelk]

Try this if you are logged in under an Administrator account, try retoring the permissions on your C: drive. Right click on the drive in My COmputer, and select Properties. Go the the Security tab, highlight your username in the top of the window. In the bottom, where you see the listing, check Full Control for your username and click apply, Then OK and reboot.

It sounds like your Read and Execute permissions got removed/altered.

[Prot]

Whether the problem is with permissions or group policy, your friend caused the problem, either knowingly or unknowingly. I would not ever lend your computer to him again.

Administrators have complete and uncontrolled access to everything on the computer. Folder permissions can only be taken, not given, so administrators even have the ability to sieze control of a user's private folder. Permissions should not really be a factor then. Likewise with group policies. They should not affect an administrator as well.

It could be a virus that is causing the problem.

[thevoelk]

You can deny administrators to access folders, even entire volumes (I do it at work all the time on my desktops so SMS doenn't f**k them up, but you have to Deny Full Control). By default, you are correct, administrators have full control. It may only apply with Domains and Groups, have to check. Also not recommended.

venomva, did your friend (or you) make a user account for him to use when he borrowed your laptop? If you did, see if it's an admin account and try to troubleshoot from there. I'll be honest, I've never seen that exact error message, and googling it didn't return results.

Here is what I recommend to do:
1)Download a Knoppix Bootable ISO (a Linux distro)
2)Burn it and boot to it and explore your Windows drive.
3)Knoppix ignores NTFS permissions, so you can move your documents to a different drive
4)Reformat and re-install Windows.

If it wasn't a laptop, you could try the drive in another workstation. As a side not, I doubt your friend meant to do this. If he did, you may want to find some new friends.