Secedit and security templates are not supported on XP Home which is why I
specified XP Pro. I have no idea if they will work or not in XP Home. As far
as your current problem look in the application and system logs to see if
any errors or warnings are reported which may help resolve the problem and
make sure you are logged on as a local administrator and try again in Safe
Mode. You can use the command net localgroup administrators to see what
users are administrators. Before doing a fresh reinstall first make sure you
can your computer for malware and spyware in both regular and Safe Mode
being sure to use the latest definitions for any program you scan with.
AdAware SE is a great free for personal use spyware detection and removal
program if you have not tried one yet.
If none of that helps see if you have a System Restore point from a point in
time before your problems began. If not try running System File Checker as
in sfc /scannow which probably will require that you have the install cdrom
handy, and if that fails consider an upgrade/repair install that would
require that you possibly install your service pack first and for sure all
critical security updates from Windows Updates when done. The links below
give more details. --- Steve
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx
--- System Restore
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310747 --- System File Checker
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx
--- XP repair install.