IE6 Driving me insane!!!

[Nate-X]

For some reason.. the security settings under TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS -> SECURITY -> INTERNET -> CUSTOM -> SECURITY SETTINGS are missing. I was building up a completely new system, installed a couple miner apps, stuck the system on a domain.. rebooted and the settings were just gone. What could cause this to happen?! The machine had all of those security settings when I started working on the machine.

I have not applied any Windows XP updates. It is Windows XP w/ Service Pack 2 in a slipstreamed install.

I'll buy anyone a beer that can shed some light on the problem

[MONKEYMAN]

Use Firefox, never heard of the settings disappearing though, virus perhaps?

[Gizmo]

I suspect a global policy in your domain has taken away those settings and provide domain-wide defaults. Is this your domain or a company's?

[Nate-X]

We don't believe it to be a global policy.. both the netadmin and I (netadmin jr) have been working on this for a while.. firefox is not an option.. if it was we'd be using it. It's for a specialized hospital software that only work with IE and we need access to those settings to work with it

Also, this ends up happening to all the XP machines I've been building up.. and we haven't seen any virus' so don't think that that is the problem.. just dunno what it could be

[Gizmo]

Just as an experiment, try pulling one of the machines back out of the domain and see fi you get the capability back. I'm not entirely certain you will, even if it isn't a global policy, but you never know 'till you try.

[Nate-X]

Took it off the domain and still didn't work.. as an experiment.. though a hardcore one I 'un-installed' ie.. deleted registry keys.. deleted all files in the internet explorer folder.. though I had problems restarting the machine hehe.. i went back to the last known good config which fixed that.. reinstalled ie and I had the settings lol... i dunno what that accomplished... i just know i can't do that with all the machines with the problem hehe

[noob]

Also try disabling the security centre within xp, your antivirus (esp if norton). The other thing is log on as 'Administrator' not an administrator.
Norton sometimes prevents changes
Security centre sometimes prevents the ability to change for non 'Administrator' users.
Also try upgrading to IE6 SP1 you can do that HERE it has some additional benefits and allows for a better interface with XP sp2

[Nate-X]

Security Center and the Firewall are disabled by our default I will try and log in as a standard admin and the current version of IE I have installed is:

6.0.2900.2180.xp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
128 Bit
Service Pack 1

Originally Posted by noob

Also try disabling the security centre within xp, your antivirus (esp if norton). The other thing is log on as 'Administrator' not an administrator.
Norton sometimes prevents changes
Security centre sometimes prevents the ability to change for non 'Administrator' users.
Also try upgrading to IE6 SP1 you can do that HERE it has some additional benefits and allows for a better interface with XP sp2

[chrisbard]

LOL you have the same problem. The WMI service is disabled in your case and based on it is everything you mention. I somehow managed to stop the WMI sevice and you can no longer access many of the net services. I solved the problem by reinstalling SP2, since you cannot restart the WMI service manualy. Good luck !

[Áedán]

Originally Posted by Nate-X

For some reason.. the security settings under TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS -> SECURITY -> INTERNET -> CUSTOM -> SECURITY SETTINGS are missing. I was building up a completely new system, installed a couple miner apps, stuck the system on a domain..

That smells very very strongly like a group policy, especially as it happened after you joined the domain. If you're using AD, then you can use the group policy editor (Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Internet Control Panel -> Disable the Security Page). I don't know the registry entries however.

[Rondog]

Originally Posted by chrisbard

LOL you have the same problem. The WMI service is disabled in your case and based on it is everything you mention. I somehow managed to stop the WMI sevice and you can no longer access many of the net services. I solved the problem by reinstalling SP2, since you cannot restart the WMI service manualy. Good luck !

Bah! IE user.

[Nate-X]

Originally Posted by chrisbard

LOL you have the same problem. The WMI service is disabled in your case and based on it is everything you mention. I somehow managed to stop the WMI sevice and you can no longer access many of the net services. I solved the problem by reinstalling SP2, since you cannot restart the WMI service manualy. Good luck !

I went into services and it says WMI is started for me

[Nate-X]

Originally Posted by Áedán

That smells very very strongly like a group policy, especially as it happened after you joined the domain. If you're using AD, then you can use the group policy editor (Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Internet Control Panel -> Disable the Security Page). I don't know the registry entries however.

Funny you mention that :P We are having a major upgrade over the weekend where we are going to AD hehe. Not on it yet though

[Áedán]

I'm not sure where it lives when you're not using AD. Personally, it does sound rather like it is group policy, especially as the issue only turned up when joined to the domain. Unjoining the domain doesn't help, as the group policy remains in place until it's over-written.

[Nate-X]

Originally Posted by Áedán

I'm not sure where it lives when you're not using AD. Personally, it does sound rather like it is group policy, especially as the issue only turned up when joined to the domain. Unjoining the domain doesn't help, as the group policy remains in place until it's over-written.

It wasn't 'immediately' after joining up with the domain. I installed acrobat reader 7.0 and the settings were missing sometime after that.. also noticed I can't set 'custom settings' for the other tabs as well =/

[noob]

This is the only thing I found which may help:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/182569

you may want to compare it to the computers that can be changed.

also try contacting MS via email, its usually free, in NZ it takes a max of 24hrs for a reply, not sure in other countries. You can get the details from http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide or ring them and they can tell you all the details.

Be warned if its connecting to a server it will cost from MS.

EDIT:

Is Windows XP activated?

Found some interesting stuff you may want to check it out:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315933
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;321598
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;823057