I just paid a ridiculously low amount of money for an old computer that my wife's company were getting rid of. Well, it's far from a P4 but at the price i paid. The problem is, it was supposed to be cleaned of important company files and restored to a normal windows. I just can't access the control panel, it's not even listed on the start menu, neither as the run command option. Also, when i right click on the desktop, i received this message:This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. These computers were sold as is. I've been told that XP will be too slow for this computer but i don't mind keeping the Win 2000 installation. Is there a place i can go in the registry to unlock these missing features ? This computer is supposed to be for my kid, but i have to change the screen resolution for certain games and i can't even do that. Any help would be much appreciated.

Running a P4 3.0 Ghz machine is certainly enough for XP, but you say this machine is 2000, even though you've listed XP as the OS. I'm a little confused there. Regardless, the machine was probably on a Domain, and you're logging in with a cached restricted Domain User account. That's my guess. If you can obtain the Local Administrator account login and password from one of the IT people where your wife works, that would be your best bet. If you don't wish to do that, the best thing would be to reload Windows XP on the machine. Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

Ok, i said that this machine i'm talking about is FAR from being a P4, it's a P2 something. Also, the machine i'm talking about runs 2000 and i want to keep it that way. The XP windows you're referring to is on my own personnal computer. It's mentionned in the head of the message because, it's already there automatically on this site when i post because these are the info i entered when i registered. As for your answer, thank you, but i am a little confused, i don't really know how to handle a:"cached restricted Domain User account".

It would help if you gave the specs instead of saying, "it's far from a P4" Rather than screwing around, probably the simpliest route would be to format the HDD & reinstall Windows. Actually, I'm surprised a business would sell a PC with an OS still intact. I know private owners do it all the time, but technically, it's a violation of MS licensing

ohh i didn't know that. ok, maybe i should have mentionned more technical details, but i thought that mentionning win 2000 was enough. Ok, after checking, it's a 500 Mhz celeron with 256M of memory. Sorry for asking about such an old piece of junk, but i hope it will serve my son again for at least 2 years. I don't have the 2000 cd,. so i can not re-install it. I do have the xp cd but it's way too big to properly function on this computer. So, does anyone have any idea how this cached restricted domain can be removed ? Thank you.

Way too big to function? Not at all. XP will just run fine on a 500 mhz with 256 of RAM. Buy another license and install XP, or buy a license and reinstall 2000. Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

I was told that it will run too slow, i was just reporting what i heard. Maybe you're right.