ACCESS DENIED (2000 AND XP ONLY)

If you are logged on to 2000 or XP with an administrator account (which should allow you to perform any task), but Windows prevents you from doing something that you ought to be able to do, or you need to configure the computer to allow another user to do something, the places to look are in the Group Policy Editor and Local Security Policy consoles (which are not available in XP Home), in addition to the security settings for users, groups, folders, and files. It often requires entire books or courses for users to learn these tools completely, but you should be able to view these and make basic changes without all that studying. Search the help files for these items, or consult an appropriate Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification book.

To open the Group Policy Editor, type “gpedit.msc” in the Run dialog. Access the Local Security Policy console from Administrative Tools in Control Panel.

Note

If there is nothing in either local policy or group policy prohibiting an activity but the activity is still being prevented, you might have to consult Microsoft support. For example, after one laptop was upgraded from 98 to 2000, even the administrator was prevented from creating new Internet connections. None of the policies prevented this, but some arcane setting in the registry that only a Microsoft support technician could find, did.