program list missing

[bobp]

I inherited an xp machine which has several programs installed, however when you click on start-all programs, there is nothing there. It does this no matter who logs into it. There must be some sort of security setting on it. Any ideas?

[Johnny Fist]

You mean someone delete the folders in the start menu? Or do you mean the All Programs menu doesn't show up at all?

[bobp]

I mean, if you open windows explorer and go to start menu-programs, all programs are listed.
If you click on start-all programs, there is nothing listed.
If you install a new program it will not be listed either. Somehow someone made it so that the programs aren't listed.

[BipolarBill]

Sounds like it's time to reinstall Windows. That is not right.

Understand that there are two main menus - All Users and then each individual. Most programs have their shortcuts placed in the All Users group. See if the All Users group still remains in the Documents and Settings folder.

Any way you look at this, it's pretty bad. I would scan for viruses and spyware:

http://www.avup.de/personal/en/avwinsfx.exe

http://security.kolla.de/

After I was sure that the PC was clean, I'd reinstall.

[bobp]

Actually, this computer was on a network and the guy who handled the network licked to lock down the pc's so no one could do anything but work on them. There must be a registry setting, or something. He also made it so that administrative tools, device manager and add remove programs are inaccessible as well. The only strange thing is, these settings remain even if I log in as local administrator.

[Johnny Fist]

I think I know whats going on here.

Start>Run>gpedit.msc

If there is no access to Run in your start menu you can execute C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe and launch gpedit.msc from there.

Under User Configuration go to Administrative Templates and then Start Menu and Taskbar. The very first option is Remove User's Folders FromTaskbar or something. See if thats enabled or not. I know its not supposed to be. A reboot may be required to see results after changing something, but I don't know for sure. Look around in there at some of the other options, too, as there maybe be other restrictions that you don't even know about yet.

[IMOG]

If you can access the run command as an administrator, type gpedit.msc and press enter.

Go down to user configuration, and look into administrative templates.

There you will find some settings for start menu and taskbar - specifically, you will find one setting named "Remove all programs list from Start Menu". That should help you with part of this lock-down issue, and if you look further, you will likely find much more within this group policy editor which you will find helpful.

You were right expecting registry settings to be the culprits - they are just manipulated through this handy interface.

EDIT: Looks like I was 2 minutes too slow.

So that this is still useful, here is the location for the settings you want to find within GPEDIT.msc:

User config>admin templates>control panel>add remove programs>"Remove Add/Remove programs programs" (Yes it says "program programs" - is this a little caesars reference from microsoft? PIZZA-PIZZA! )

You may want to try using some of these administrative utilities through the microsoft management console and its snap-ins. Open a run command and type mmc then press enter - you can add and remove many useful snap ins there which allow you to perform administrative tasks.

If the MMC has restrictions placed on it also, those can be removed through here in GPEDIT.msc:

User config>admin templates>windows components>microsoft management console>restricted/permitted snap-ins

As far as I can tell, this may be the primary place where utilities like device manager are enabled/disabled from. Let us know what you find!

This site also has a useful set of windows tweaks which will fix things similar to the issues you are having - they are in the forum of VBS files, which automatically make the tweaks and changes for you.

[IMOG]

Update?

Hope you didn't take any actions which were too drastic, as its just some fairly simple configuration changes which are needed. Post if you have any questions about how to do anything exactly.