Windows Defender config disabled due to group policy on Home Premi

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I'm running Vista Home Premium. I also use Sunbelt CounterSpy 2.5 for
anti-spyware and BitDefender 2008 AV for antivirus. Since Windows Defender's
real-time protection would conflict with CounterSpy, there's an option in
CounterSpy to disable Windows Defender. However, at some point when I was
using Windows Defender to check out the Software Explorer, I took a look at
the options and noticed that a) Windows Defender's real-time protection was
still enabled, b) it hadn't been updated in a long time and yet manually
updating it resulted in it saying no updates were available, and c) the only
option I can change is whether or not I run scheduled scans. The "error"
message at the top of the options window says, "Some settings are managed by
your system administrator."

I have checked the "Why can't I change some settings?" help link and the
only answer it offers suggests that someone applied a group policy to my
computer. But Home Premium doesn't have Group Policy Editor, and I don't know
the registry keys that would accomplish the same thing. I want 2 things: 1)
to have Windows Defender's real-time protection off, and 2) to be able to
configure Windows Defender at will and not via registry edit every time. A
3rd thing that would be nice is to understand how this happened in the first
place, but if I can at least get it fixed, that's not so important. (Although
it does keep me awake at night wondering if I need to upgrade to Ultimate to
have full control over my system in the future.)

Thanks for any suggestions,
Kira
 
kira13 said:
I'm running Vista Home Premium. I also use Sunbelt CounterSpy 2.5 for
anti-spyware and BitDefender 2008 AV for antivirus. Since Windows Defender's
real-time protection would conflict with CounterSpy, there's an option in
CounterSpy to disable Windows Defender. However, at some point when I was
using Windows Defender to check out the Software Explorer, I took a look at
the options and noticed that a) Windows Defender's real-time protection was
still enabled, b) it hadn't been updated in a long time and yet manually
updating it resulted in it saying no updates were available, and c) the only
option I can change is whether or not I run scheduled scans. The "error"
message at the top of the options window says, "Some settings are managed by
your system administrator."

I have checked the "Why can't I change some settings?" help link and the
only answer it offers suggests that someone applied a group policy to my
computer. But Home Premium doesn't have Group Policy Editor, and I don't know
the registry keys that would accomplish the same thing. I want 2 things: 1)
to have Windows Defender's real-time protection off, and 2) to be able to
configure Windows Defender at will and not via registry edit every time. A
3rd thing that would be nice is to understand how this happened in the first
place, but if I can at least get it fixed, that's not so important. (Although
it does keep me awake at night wondering if I need to upgrade to Ultimate to
have full control over my system in the future.)

Thanks for any suggestions,
Kira
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that I am a home user, on a peer-to-peer network with a
Vista Ultimate desktop computer, my Vista Home Premium desktop computer, and
2 XP Pro SP2 laptop computers. I am the unofficial system administrator for
the entire network, and I did not create a Group Policy on one of the other
computers and apply it to this one and I highly doubt my husband did either
(and we are the only 2 household members).

Kira
 
I forgot to mention that I am a home user, on a peer-to-peer network.... I am the unofficial system administrator for
the entire network, and I did not create a Group Policy on one of the other
computers and apply it to this one....

Kira
Click to expand...

Okay, no one else seems to know the answer to this one. Well, over the
weekend, I used a registry editor and just searched for every instance of
"defender", and I found one that seemed to do the trick. I don't remember for
sure which one I changed, if anyone else is having this problem, but it was a
subkey of HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Defender, because I had to change
the owner of the key in order to change the permissions so I could edit it. I
*think* I got everything set back the way I had it (permissions-wise).

I still have the notification at the top of the settings screen that I don't
have permission (as a non-admin) to change some settings, but it appears that
the only setting I can't change now is to turn Windows Defender off entirely,
and I'm sure I can find the registry keys for that if I have to. I still
wonder if I should have gone with Vista Ultimate, though (but that family
upgrade offer was too tempting and only applied to Home Premium). Oh, well,
if I decide to do the anytime upgrade, I'll still be getting Ultimate for a
lot less....
 
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