XP "Start" button lock

Perhaps this page would be useful to you:

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/905/
Disable Menu Bars and the Start Button (Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP)

>>Unfortunately, we no longer has user and pass for making changes via AD.<<   ????

Disable Menu Bars and the Start Button

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/905/

:)  day late and dollar short!

Hmmm, that's a nice page, Fatal_Exception.  I'll add that one to my bookmarks!

*grin*  thanks Lee..  Been a while since I had to use it.  Had a customer a couple years ago that wanted a custom designed Kiosk, and had that page buried in my bookmarks..  lucky I even remembered it!

The suggestion offered at http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/905/ has no effect.  I verified that the GUID was preceeded with a "-" yet a reboot resulted in normal ops.

Bill

http://www.jsifaq.com/suba/tip0000/rh0050.htm is a great page, but unless I missed it, it does not offer a way to disable the start button, only items  in the start button displayed items.  I am really looking to either remove or "neuter" the button completely.  

Bill

you could try Fortres 101  :]  Hope this helps

http://www.fortresgrand.com/products/fortres_101.htm

are you operating in a domain environment at all? group policy can role this out

TechInsider,

I do not understand the @="Menu Band" append.  I tried simply adding the dash in front of the registry key, but as I stated in earlier comments, that had no effect.  What do I do with the  @="Menu Band"?

Bill

Jay_Jay70,

The PC I am working with is a member of a domain, however as I mentioned earlier, the my client lost the password to the Administrator account.  Perhaps if there were a way around this, then using a GPO object would be fine.

Bill

Are you saying the the client (the administrator and I assume owner) does not have the password for administering the Domain Controller?

If so, he has more serious problems than trying to lock down a simple workstation!

FE

Fatal,

Yes .  The affected server (DC) is going to be replaced soon with a completely new system.  So we are getting thru this on a temp basis.  A tech services compay (before me) set up my doctor client with a really nice system but it is way more complicated than it needs to be for what my client needs for his practice. They never bothered to give him any system documentation (I wonder why?) So while we cannot alter the server,  we are limping along.

Bill

Not much of a tech services company, eh?  but I must say, have seen it before on more occasions that I would like to admit..

I have not tried this yet, but MS provides for free (Microsoft and Free in the same sentence?  :) a toolkit for locking down desktops..  You might want to ck it out..

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/overview.mspx

Good luck with that server migration..  hate to say it, but without Admin Access, I would not want the responsibility!

FE

Best of luck with this, Bill!  Really mean it!  and thanks!

FE

FE-

OK - thx - might x paths later!

Hi Bill,

The file I referenced will autoinstall in the registry if you double click it.  Menu Band is the key value to disable the start button and menu.

In another thought, if you want admin access to the DC, why not just run an administrator password reset program directly from the Server.  There are about a dozen Linux-based boot disks out there that will allow you to change or reset the admin password on any Win2k/XP/2003 machine, in a matter of seconds.  Most of them are free (or you can pay around $100 for a fast download, if you don't want to dig through Google for an hour).

-TechInsider

Thanks - great idea - any suggestions on which one to use to a non-Linux guy?

I'm not a linux guy either...it's just easier to use linux to break the password.

The disks are all in 'plain english', and menu driven, so you don't need to know linux to use em.

This is the page I have book marked for this type of tool.  Choose the one that best fits your situation.

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

-TechInsider

Thanks for the info!

Just an FYI here...  most domain controllers (2003 for instance) have the Lanman hash disabled, and Linux password reset will NOT work on these...

That is why I am feeling the pain with you..  If you want to break into this DC, you are going to have some reall issues..

FE

Ah, good point.

If that is the case, then try these fixes (from that same website as above)

For a Win2k Domain controller:

http://www.petri.co.il/reset_domain_admin_password_in_windows_2000_ad.htm

For a Win2003 Domain Controller:

http://www.petri.co.il/reset_domain_admin_password_in_windows_2000_ad.htm

Now, there are going to be a few different passwords at work here:  The local admin password for the DC's machine account (which is what the boot disks from my previous post will change), and the Domain admin account, which will not be changed by those boot disks...however, the links above may allow you to change the domain admin password, once you have control of the local admin account.

Fun project to say the least, but still shouldn't take too long.

I hate being locked out of a computer I'm supposed to fix, because someone didn't set me up a tech account :)

Hopefully, those techniques above will give you back control of your DC.

-TechInsider

oops...

This one for a Win2003 domain controller *blush*

http://www.petri.co.il/reset_domain_admin_password_in_windows_server_2003_ad.htm

-TI