How do I verify System Administrator Privileges in Windows ME

I set myself up years ago as the system administrator on my home machine
(running Windows Milennium). The other two accounts are my wife's and
daughter's accounts. For some reason I do not seem to have system
administrator privileges any more. For example, if I click on Tools->
Internet Options in Explorer (v6.0), I get a message saying:
"This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this
computer. Please contact your system administrator".
I can to into "users" in the control panel to verify that there are no user
besides the ones listed above. I have not found any way of verifying that am
either setup as an administrator or not (incidentally, Windows XP that I
have access to at work seems to have more menus under the "user" icon that
allows one further insight).

So I am stuck - how do I gain control, so I can, for example install the
software that I want. I am running Norton viruschecker on the machine and
have run
Trendmicro Housecall scan recently. Also, the only thing thie home
computer has been linked to was a wireless router where it shared to access
to the internet with a laptop in the house (I used the "home (i.e. problem)
machine" to install the router etc..., but the network was never setup so
that other machines on the wireless network could access the "home machine" -
at least that was the intention). Incidentally the wireless router blew up
in a lighting storm and I can not go through the installation process of the
new router until I solve this problem.
Help,
Oli

PA
Mon Nov 07 23:41:51 CST 2005

Is Spybot installed?
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=faq&detail=24
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Shell/User, Security), AH-VSOP

Oli wrote:
> I set myself up years ago as the system administrator on my home machine
> (running Windows Milennium). The other two accounts are my wife's and
> daughter's accounts. For some reason I do not seem to have system
> administrator privileges any more. For example, if I click on Tools->
> Internet Options in Explorer (v6.0), I get a message saying:
> "This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this
> computer. Please contact your system administrator".
> I can to into "users" in the control panel to verify that there are no
> user besides the ones listed above.
<snip>

Frank
Tue Nov 08 07:27:05 CST 2005

"Oli" <Oli@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ACC0090E-5F80-4EBE-B285-C7EC95501226@microsoft.com
> I set myself up years ago as the system administrator on my home
> machine (running Windows Milennium). The other two accounts are my
> wife's and daughter's accounts. For some reason I do not seem to
> have system administrator privileges any more. For example, if I
> click on Tools-> Internet Options in Explorer (v6.0), I get a
> message saying: "This operation has been cancelled due to
> restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system
> administrator".
> I can to into "users" in the control panel to verify that there are
> no user besides the ones listed above. I have not found any way of
> verifying that am either setup as an administrator or not
> (incidentally, Windows XP that I have access to at work seems to
> have more menus under the "user" icon that allows one further
> insight).
>
> So I am stuck - how do I gain control, so I can, for example install
> the software that I want. I am running Norton viruschecker on the
> machine and have run
> Trendmicro Housecall scan recently. Also, the only thing thie home
> computer has been linked to was a wireless router where it shared to
> access to the internet with a laptop in the house (I used the "home
> (i.e. problem) machine" to install the router etc..., but the
> network was never setup so that other machines on the wireless
> network could access the "home machine" - at least that was the
> intention). Incidentally the wireless router blew up in a lighting
> storm and I can not go through the installation process of the new
> router until I solve this problem.
> Help,
> Oli

Close IE.
Open Regedit.
Find the value NoBrowserOptions and remove every instance of it.
It is most likely (but not necessarily) to be here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions

You might try this from Mike Burgess first if you use SpyBot:
'Did you by chance run SpyBot's Immunize feature?
If so, you can unlock by unchecking the option to "Protect IE Control
Panel".
See http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=6748

I believe Ad-Aware may now have a similar setting.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

Alun
Mon Nov 14 18:18:04 CST 2005

Oli wrote:
> I set myself up years ago as the system administrator on my home machine
> (running Windows Milennium). The other two accounts are my wife's and
> daughter's accounts. For some reason I do not seem to have system
> administrator privileges any more. For example, if I click on Tools->
> Internet Options in Explorer (v6.0), I get a message saying:
> "This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this
> computer. Please contact your system administrator".

Besides the various spyware scans that others have already suggested (and
there's no harm in scanning with two or three different pieces of software),
here's a couple of things worth noting:

1. Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME) is not secure. Its architecture
is essentially suited only to use as a single-user machine in a local
workgroup among trusted users.
2. In Windows ME, everyone is an administrator, and noone is restricted.
Everyone can do everything. See point 1 - Windows ME is not secure.

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 offer the ability to differentiate
between restricted users and administrators, and Windows ME does not. This
is why you should suspect that the behaviour you cite above is probably
caused by some kind of malware.

Most virus scanners will not detect spyware for various, mostly historical,
reasons, and possibly because there's some legal grey areas surrounding
spyware, since it's generally code that you assent to installing, even
though you don't understand or get told what it will do.

Most spyware scanners have gaps in their awarenesses, as they focus on
different means of detection or infestation. Be careful to choose a
reputable spyware scanner (if you can't tell, by all means please ask in
this newsgroup!) or two or three. I use:

Microsoft's Anti-Spyware Beta (hey, it's beta, but it's pretty good) -
http://www.microsoft.com
Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.spybot.info
AdAware - http://www.lavasoft.de

I trust these (there are those who would distrust Microsoft's Anti-Spyware
product, but that seems to be mostly because of misunderstandings over what
its intents are - some adware is not automatically deleted, whereas many
people would want it to be).

Alun.
~~~~
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