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Help: XP Permissions/Rights Messed up

Miso888

Junior Member
I just noticed my access is all messed up. I cannot access system restore, Windows Explorer, Users (from Control Panel). I am using XP SP2 but it was upgraded from Win 2000 when I installed the O/S a few years ago. The system worked fine until now. I didnt need to make any mods to it. The rights/permissions were previously changed last year when an friend helped me to get some Video editing s/w to run. I noticed the problems when anti-virus software wouldnt uninstall or install. It got worse from there.

I used my laptop (XP) Home to try to change the default settings back file by file. I havent been successful. There are three users setup. Two should have full admin rights, the other does not. But, I also noticed POWERUSER was setup in the profile. I deleted that as I went along.

I tried system restore in both safe mode, command prompt etc. I don't even get a prompt. The rights/permissions have been compromised.

I dont want to do a compete reinstall (cant do the XP repair because of the rights issue). I read somewhere that mmc.exe may help. I tried one template but it didnt help.

I also think my registry is corrupt too since I cant access the USER PROFILE in Control Panel nor System Restore or do a simple search with Windows Explorer.

CAN ANYONE HELP? Thanks

Miso
 
Offhand, it sounds like you don't own your computer anymore.

If it was mine, I'd copy important data to another location and re-install Windows XP. Be sure to install SP2 before hooking it to the Internet.
 
I figured as much.

I took the hard drive out and connected it to my laptop via drive enclosure. I started deleting away. I didn't realize this, but I have about 100 files or so that are encrypted. Most are pics and some backup of apps. I cant even delete the files.

I downloaded Advanced EFS recovery and it was able to locate the keys supposedly but now, they want $100 to complete the decryption. Any info on how to do this without shelling out money?
 
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