Member Avatar for BastardAle

Sorry Mods if this is in the wrong topic (the site has changed dramaticly since I was last in here).

This is actually a two-part question:

I'm running XPpro. I got tired of coming home from work to a hosed desktop, I mean I don't know how my kids do it but they manage to fubar my desktop on a regular basis! So I created them their own account with limited rights.

1) Isn't there a way for me to log onto the Kids' account and from there log in as admin to make system changes?

2) I'm toying with GPEDIT.MSC because I want my kids to have VERY limited access to most things, I.E. desktop settings, taskbar changes, all programs except their games, etc.

Because I couldn't figure out question 1, I made them admins so I could run gpedit from their logon thinking the changes I made to the "user configuration" would only affect the user that gpedit was running under (in this case the Kids' acct).

Well, I disabled MANY things, one of which was the RUN program....

When I logged off and logged back into my own account, guess what?
not only was everything I disabled disabled on MY account, but my RUN was gone. So I couldn't even launch GPEDIT again (did a quick search and found it in the Windows directory).

So what's the deal with gpedit? I just want to change settings for a specific user not my whole machine!!!

Can someone help me out?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Sandesh_exe

Dani AI

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Short answer: gpedit.msc on Windows XP edits the machine’s Local Group Policy — the User Configuration section you changed is applied to every user who logs on to that PC, so disabling “Run” from gpedit will remove it for all local accounts. Windows only gained easy per-user local-GPO support (the “Multiple Local Group Policy”/user-specific LGPO feature) starting with Windows Vista; XP’s local GPO is global for all local users. (learn.microsoft.com)

If Run (or other UI bits) are already gone, recover by undoing the local policy or wiping the local policy files and forcing a refresh. From an administrative account (or by booting Safe Mode to reach the built‑in Administrator) either open gpedit.msc and set the changed User Configuration items back to “Not Configured”, or back up then remove the GroupPolicy folders and refresh:

ren "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy" GroupPolicy.bak
ren "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers" GroupPolicyUsers.bak
gpupdate /force

(Or use RD /S /Q instead of ren if you prefer to delete after backing up.) That removes the registry.pol policy files that push those settings into HKLM/HKCU and forces Windows to recreate a default empty local policy. Back up first — deleting these resets all local GPOs. (learn.microsoft.com)

For the workflow you wanted (log into kids’ account and make admin changes without affecting everyone): don’t make the kids Administrators. Use Limited/Standard accounts for them and use “Run as”/runas to perform admin tasks when needed (Shift+right‑click → Run as… or runas /user:Administrator <program>), or log in temporarily as an admin. If you need per-user policy targeting on a standalone machine you’ll need Vista/7+ MLGPO or a domain GPO — XP can’t target an individual local user with the local gpedit. (ss64.com)

Notes: — that behavior is normal for XP. ’s pointer that gpedit.msc lives in the System32 folder is correct, but opening it there won’t create per-user rules on XP. — the steps above are what to try to restore Run.

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Member Avatar for Catweazle


Moved to Windows XP section, by the way :)

Member Avatar for yourpalcliffy

Did u manage to resolve the referred issue where GPEDIT was disabled. I am having same problem here. Please assist.

Member Avatar for Sandesh_exe

"yourpalcliffy" You just have to search on windows directory. You will find gpedit.msc inside there.

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