Member Avatar for smarty_t2

Hello everybody.
I am running windows xp. I was just exploring everything inside gpedit.msc and found an interesting option there. It says something like " Prevent users from running applications " or run only specified applications or something like that. I enabled it and added only a few in its list "notepad.exe", "iexplore.exe" and a few more. But i forgot to add "gpedit.msc" to that list and i closed the group policy editor's window. Now i cannot run gpedit.msc and therefore cannot change this setting. Now there are just 2-3 applications that i am able to run.
Is anybody having any Idea...?
Somwthing that i can do/try...
Please help ASAP
Thank you

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Short summary and what happened: the “Run only specified Windows applications” setting writes a user-side policy under the Current User policies so that Explorer will refuse to launch anything not listed. That is why gpedit.msc stopped working for the affected user. ’s recovery by restoring local Group Policy files is a valid fix, and is correct that using an administrator account that isn’t affected is the simplest way to undo the change. (learn.microsoft.com)

If another administrator account exists, sign in with that account and either open gpedit.msc to set the policy back to Not Configured, or edit the registry for the affected user: the setting maps to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer (value name RestrictRun and the subkey RestrictRun). If you need to edit the restricted user’s HKCU from another admin account, load that user’s NTUSER.DAT hive in Regedit (File → Load Hive), edit or delete the RestrictRun value/subkey, then unload the hive. Back up the registry before editing. (learn.microsoft.com)

If no working admin UI is available, remove or reset the local GPO files from outside the running Windows install (Recovery Console, Windows PE, or by attaching the disk to another working PC). Removing or renaming the local GroupPolicy folders (for example, deleting %WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy and GroupPolicyUsers) forces Windows to drop local policy next refresh/reboot. After that, run gpupdate /force or reboot and the settings will revert to Not Configured. Example commands (run from an elevated prompt or recovery shell): 

RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"
RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy"
gpupdate /force

Always backup first and be aware this clears all local policy changes. (woshub.com)

Extra tips and cautions: if Command Prompt or Task Manager still runs you can often use those to launch regedit/reg.exe and remove the RestrictRun entries (the policy only blocks programs launched by Explorer). If policies or permissions look corrupted, the secedit reset can restore default security policy state. If unsure, export the Registry.pol or back up the GroupPolicy folder before deleting it — that preserves a restore point you can copy back. (learn.microsoft.com)

Member Avatar for smarty_t2

Was just trying to figure this out and luckily succeded. My system is backto normal now. Heres what i did...
I attached my old hard disk which had a windows partition(although my windows in old HDD is corrupt) and started my system in safe mode. I copied the folder named "Group Policy" and two files, "gpedit.msc" and "gpedit.dll" from old windows to my new one(that has this problem). I restarted my system in normal mode and tried running gpedit.msc, it gave error once but i typed it again and it was working.

Maybe a few steps that i took werent necessary, like running system in safe mode, or copying stuff more than required. But in any case, this works. Just posting it in case somebody else gets the same problem.
Thank You

Member Avatar for SaintThomas

You can fix this problem by login as a main administrator or system administrator or make another administrator which is authorized to other user to run the application.

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