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At work in Active Directory there is a OU that is setup to lock down computers so that they can only run certain programs. Sometimes this make simple things like moving the taskbar into a longer than necessary process. So I was looking around for a solution and came across this command
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
which opens the task bars and start menu properties. I tried this because the pc's in the resticted OU are so locked down, you can't right click on anything. Also, the control panel is hidden. I tried the above command on my pc and it works fine. However, on a locked down pc you get
"This operation was cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator."
would there be a way to run this command so that it unlocks the taskbar? Or is there a better way to unlock the taskbar through the command line or something like it?
Also, I can't do this through group policy, and I'm not trying to get around security, it is just to move a taskbar. I can't see how that would affect security, the user just wants to move the taskbar.
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
which opens the task bars and start menu properties. I tried this because the pc's in the resticted OU are so locked down, you can't right click on anything. Also, the control panel is hidden. I tried the above command on my pc and it works fine. However, on a locked down pc you get
"This operation was cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator."
would there be a way to run this command so that it unlocks the taskbar? Or is there a better way to unlock the taskbar through the command line or something like it?
Also, I can't do this through group policy, and I'm not trying to get around security, it is just to move a taskbar. I can't see how that would affect security, the user just wants to move the taskbar.
ASKER
so from other things I have psexec, and ran this command
C:\psexec>PsExec.exe \\d01endcs0004a rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
it runs and returns this message
rundll32.exe exited on d01endcs0004a with error code 0.
which I take to mean that it worked, but when I try to move the task bar it doesn't move?
C:\psexec>PsExec.exe \\d01endcs0004a rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
it runs and returns this message
rundll32.exe exited on d01endcs0004a with error code 0.
which I take to mean that it worked, but when I try to move the task bar it doesn't move?
I think it is closing immediately so try adding PAUSE as a second line in the BAT file which will hopefully leave the properties sheet open.
ASKER
i tried that but it's still not working, but i think it might be because there's a domain policy.
when i run the batch file on the restricted machine it says
"This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.
when i run the batch file on the restricted machine it says
"This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.
c:\pstools\psexec -u administrator -i rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
It will prompt you for the admin password; but, just worked fine for me. The other options are in the help file in the PSTools folder.
It will prompt you for the admin password; but, just worked fine for me. The other options are in the help file in the PSTools folder.
ASKER
ok, I had a chance to try
c:\pstools\psexec -u administrator -i rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
and it asks for a password, but as soon as I put the password in ( i did it a couple of times very carefully ) I get this error
"Error in shell32.dll
Missing entry: Options_RunDll"
any ideas what might be causing this?
c:\pstools\psexec -u administrator -i rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
and it asks for a password, but as soon as I put the password in ( i did it a couple of times very carefully ) I get this error
"Error in shell32.dll
Missing entry: Options_RunDll"
any ideas what might be causing this?
ASKER
by the way i realized that I need to run this on the remote pc, so I did this command
"PsExec.exe \\d01endcs0004a -u phadmin -i rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
but then I get
"Error in shell32.dll
Missing entry: Options_RunDll"
on the remote pc.
"PsExec.exe \\d01endcs0004a -u phadmin -i rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
but then I get
"Error in shell32.dll
Missing entry: Options_RunDll"
on the remote pc.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
I didn't have " around anything, I just put the " in my post to show that that was what i typed into the command prompt. Sorry, I guess that was a little mis-leading. So I tried the command just like you have it
PsExec.exe \\d01endcs0004a -u phadmin -i "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
and now I get this.
PsExec could not start rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
The system cannot find the file specified.
So I thought this might be because of the group policies blocking the control panel, so I have a test laptop that has win7 loaded on it without our sccm image loaded on it. it is just "out-of-the-box" win7 with no modifications and at a command prompt on it I run
"rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
and it said that it is not recognized as an internal or external command, so I tried
rundll32.exe "shell32.dll,Options_Rundl
and that ran without an error, it just went back to the command prompt. but I thought that this was supposed to unlock the task bar, but when i ran the above command, and then right click on the task bar, the "Lock the TaskBar" is still checked. So I tried
rundll32.exe "shell32.dll,Options_Rundl
just out of curiosity to see if the 1=locked and 2 might = unlocked, but it runs the command with no problems, but the taskbar is still locked.
PsExec.exe \\d01endcs0004a -u phadmin -i "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
and now I get this.
PsExec could not start rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
The system cannot find the file specified.
So I thought this might be because of the group policies blocking the control panel, so I have a test laptop that has win7 loaded on it without our sccm image loaded on it. it is just "out-of-the-box" win7 with no modifications and at a command prompt on it I run
"rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_Rundll
and it said that it is not recognized as an internal or external command, so I tried
rundll32.exe "shell32.dll,Options_Rundl
and that ran without an error, it just went back to the command prompt. but I thought that this was supposed to unlock the task bar, but when i ran the above command, and then right click on the task bar, the "Lock the TaskBar" is still checked. So I tried
rundll32.exe "shell32.dll,Options_Rundl
just out of curiosity to see if the 1=locked and 2 might = unlocked, but it runs the command with no problems, but the taskbar is still locked.
ASKER
thank you for the help.
Then, create a BAT file which has this:
c:\pstools\psexec -s -i rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL
If you care to use a flash drive, substitute its drive letter for c and set the properties for the bat file to always run as administrator.