Solved Group Policy on a standalone machine?

A

AndyTampa

Member
I've been going through my Event Viewer looking for answers to a problem and I keep finding Group Policy events in the Windows System Logs. This machine is a Windows Vista PC that I have networked with an XP machine and a network printer. I have not used Group Policy and don't even know how to use it.

Is it normal for someone to have set Group Policy in my standalone machine?

Is this what keeps me from looking in certain folders even though I am the administrator?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
Home versions of Windows have no Group Policy GUI, but registry keys can nevertheless be created. Certain Microsoft Fix-it tools are known to create Group Policy settings, and there's nothing to prevent security software or malware from doing likewise.

Could you be more specific regarding your problem?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium x86 SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion Elite m9150f
    CPU
    Intel Q6600
    Memory
    3 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Vistaar said:
Home versions of Windows have no Group Policy GUI, but registry keys can nevertheless be created. Certain Microsoft Fix-it tools are known to create Group Policy settings, and there's nothing to prevent security software or malware from doing likewise.

Could you be more specific regarding your problem?
Click to expand...
I avoided going into specifics about the problem because too much information sometimes easily distracts those who are trying to help. My Kaspersky Internet Security keeps shutting down without warning and without telling me. I was looking for correlative events in the Event Manager when I kept seeing Group Policy entries. Even with as little as I know about networking, I know that Group Policy is used in large networks to dispatch instructions to large numbers of machines. I couldn't imagine why my home computer is being controlled by Group Policy.

I'm also wondering if this Group Policy could have been used by malware to force my computer to misbehave. The below entries repeat over and over again in my Event Viewer every few days. Oddly there are none for February and none for the User in March.

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy
Date: 1/27/2015 12:11:30 PM
Event ID: 1501
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords:
User: AndysMain\Andy
Computer: AndysMain
Description:
The Group Policy settings for the user were processed successfully. There were no changes detected since the last successful processing of Group Policy.

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy
Date: 3/3/2015 3:26:44 PM
Event ID: 1500
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: AndysMain
Description:
The Group Policy settings for the computer were processed successfully. There were no changes detected since the last successful processing of Group Policy.

The Event Viewer and Group Policy entries only go back to September, before I installed Kaspersky, but my problems with Kasperky didn't start until November. I don't think the Group Policy has anything to do with my Kaspersky problems, but I'd like to be sure the Group Policy isn't a sign of a different problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
Yeah, I had a feeling it was a security issue. I've certainly heard of antivirus software being blocked by mysterious Group Policy settings, but fortunately never had to deal with such a problem myself. It's probably safe to assume that your PC has been compromised for several months. Short of reinstalling Windows, any solution will involve manually editing the registry. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium x86 SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion Elite m9150f
    CPU
    Intel Q6600
    Memory
    3 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Vistaar said:
Yeah, I had a feeling it was a security issue. I've certainly heard of antivirus software being blocked by mysterious Group Policy settings, but fortunately never had to deal with such a problem myself. It's probably safe to assume that your PC has been compromised for several months. Short of reinstalling Windows, any solution will involve manually editing the registry. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Click to expand...
I don't think my machine is compromised. It is most likely something from some registry fix I might have downloaded, but still it could be getting in the way. I've been looking through Process Monitor from Sysinternals and found several entries about domains as well. I'm not on a domain, but I used to VPN into work, which is of course on a domain and could have deposited those group policies.

I'm not averse to editing the registry. It's never been a problem for me. I just need to know what to add/remove/edit.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
I have found that an anti virus scan by one Anti Virus may miss some Malware. Run a full anti virus scan, run a scan with malwarebytes and then run a scan with eset on line. If you are clean, probably the cause is elsewhere.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I use Kaspersky which is pretty damn good. I've run full scans, but Kaspersky uninstalled Malwarebytes during installation. Scanners often conflict with each other. I also don't trust the internet to scan my machine, regardless of whose software is being used. I'll need to look into editing group policy settings out.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
While some here have tried to be helpful, nobody has actually told me if Group Policy settings are running on their versions of Vista Home Premium. GPSVC (Group Policy Client) is running in my system services (as seen in Task Manager) and there are multiple occurances of the phrase "Group Policy" in the registry. If everyone has some versions of it running, I can remove it from my list of things to worry about.

Would you folks be so kind as to do a quick search and tell me if it's common?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
Windows 7, Hope Premium. Mine is running. In this area Vista should be the same as Seven
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
richc46 said:
Windows 7, Hope Premium. Mine is running. In this area Vista should be the same as Seven
Click to expand...

What? I don't understand this sentence at all. Are you saying that Group Policy is running on your Windows 7 system so it should be the same on my Vista system? I don't see them as being the same. If they were, they'd be named the same.

Doesn't anyone else in the Vista forum actually have Vista besides me?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
I'm going to put my last question into a separate thread targeted to current Vista users. It might be easier to get it answered that way from current users of Vista.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
I got my answers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Windows Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Retrofitted Refurbished Gateway
    CPU
    AMD
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3A78-EM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22-in Flat Screen Monitor
    Mouse
    Logitech M705 Wireless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard
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