Can't run Device Manager

[Guest]

I am having a problem with my computer at home running Windows XP Home with
SP2. The account that I am logging into has Administrator privilege. For some
reason, I am unable to install device drivers and access various MMC
Snap-ins. Also, some of my Snap-ins “fail to initialize†when I try launching
them…. like the Event Viewer. I think somehow my permissions have gone bad
for my account… even though I am an Administrator and never had any problems
until a couple of weeks ago.

When I try to launch the Device Manager under Administrative Tools from
Control Panel, a dialogue box pops up which says "You do not have sufficient
security privileges to uninstall devices or to change device properties or
device drivers. Please contact your site administrator, or logout and log in
again as an administrator and try again."

This account was working fine up until a couple of weeks ago. I have also
tried creating a new account with Administrator privilege and I get the same
result.

Do you know of any way that I can look at my permissions settings and/or
restore them to the correct values? Do you know if they are kept in some
Registry entry somewhere or some System File?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’d hate to have to install XP again.

Thanks,
Greg Mirek

 

[Steven L Umbach]

More than likely you have a problem with malware that is causing this and
you should proceed accordingly with malware scans also in Safe Mode being
sure to use the latest virus definitions from your virus detection and
removal program. Beyond that see if you can use regedit and if you can go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\Microsoft and delete any keys you see
under Microsoft. Those are the keys that Group Policy uses in XP Pro. That
may not fix all your problems but would be a good start. --- Steve

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx
--- Protect Your PC must follow tips.