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How can I determine which local policy or restriction is affecting a user's inability to view Internet Options?

The user will get the warning: "This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer..." when attempting to open the Internet Options in IE 6 on her WinXP machine. I haven't found any GPO's in AD which would restrict this. Looking on the workstation locally, I did see three local security policies enabled: Disable changing home page settings, Turn off "Delete Browsing History" functionality, and Prevent the deletion of temporary Internet files and cookies. I had since changed these three to "Not Configured" and rebooted, but the problem remains. I noticed when I log in as a domain admin, the policy does not affect me, as I'm able to open the Internet Options. I added the user to the local administrator's group on this workstation, but no change. I'd like to know where I should start looking for this policy or restriction so that I can undo it...

debuggerau

if you suspect it is group policy making these restrictions, I would use RSOP from with gpedit to review, and try gpupdate /sync /force to update the client firstly..
Would the IE be distributed using the IEAK7? this might mean things are disabled from creation and may require repackaging..

llman

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894179 (FIX: You may receive a "This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer" error message when you try to open the Internet Options dialog box in Internet Explorer 6)

MSE-JNegus

Have you tried running GPRESULT /V at the command prompt?

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llman

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guitar_dave

ASKER

I don't see any evidence of IEAK7 being implemented in the domain (I've only recently become the new admin here...)

The gpresult /v output didn't reveal anything I hadn't expected to see. I have saved the output.

IIman's last post led me to check the registry where I did find the NoBrowserOptions enabled in HKCU. Disabling this led to a fix for this user. Now I have to find where/how this policy is being pushed out from...

llman

See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737915.aspx which says "To change the value of this entry, use the Group Policy Object Editor (Gpedit.msc). The corresponding policy is located in \Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Browser menus."

guitar_dave

ASKER

I've recently learned that the XP workstations were all imaged with restrictions already configured locally, but aside from seeing the three policies that I listed in my original post, I don't see how the Internet Options are restricted from opening, other than in the registry...So I will assume that the previous admin must have modified the registry directly on these XP workstations rather than using the local security policy to do it...
Thanks for the assistance experts