I'm looking for someone that knows anything about adminstative stuff for WinME. I can't access my Internet Options or Folder Options via the pull down menus in folder windows or Internet Explorer windows, only through Control Panel. When I try it gives me an error saying that I cant do this due to restrictions on my computer and to contact my system administrator. This only started happening recently and I have no system administrator. I know this isnt a virus cause i just did a virus check with updated Norton. It happened after I went to one of those annoying websites that sets itself as your homepage. I updated Norton just to check for viruses to see if it was a virus. When I type inetcpl.cpl in Run, the Internet Options dialog comes up. I searched for *.pol files after enabling all files to be shown and found nothing. I do have TweakUI installed but I haven't used it in a long time. I did check TweakUI to see if I could fix the problem through there but no such luck. I do have regedit.exe but all computers have that (if they have Win95+ that is) and I didn't change anything in there to cause the problem. Thanks to all helping.

Did you have a logon and a password for windows? If you still cant access the options, there is no harm in downloading another internet explorer (from microsoft) and then erasing the previous one.

Jon, in Tweakui, did you check "Remove Control Panel from Start Menu"?, if so then that will cause the problem, I know , because I did just that. Newgrl, posted this a while ago, I checked the registery as detailed and it fixed the problem. Try this: Microsoft KB: Unable to Start Control Panel Tools After You Use TweakUI to Disable "Show Control Panel" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> RESOLUTION ... To resolve this issue, use Registry Editor to remove the "NoControlPanel" value from following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> To get to the registry editor go to start>>run>>regedit.

I don't have that value in that registry key. I did reinstall WinME over the current install and it still didn't fix it. Any other thoughts?

If you go to the above key(from Colin's post) in the registry... What are the values there? It really sounds like someone has installed Policies on this machine without your knowledge. Also post here the values in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies List the folders located there... and the values(just the names for now) listed in each one. Also... do a search for inetcpl.cpl and tell me where it is... for instance: c:\windows or c:\windows\system etc...

Under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer" there is CDRAutoRun (00 00 00 00), NoDriveTypeAutoRun (95 00 00 00), NoSaveSettings (00 00 00 00), and NoStartBanner (00 00 00 00). Under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" there is Network, NonEnum, Ratings, and OldWinApp which are all folders. In the Network folder there is HideSharePwds (01 00 00 00). In the NonEnum folder there is {0DF44EAA-FF21-4412-828E-260A8728E7F1}, {6DFD7C5C-2451-11d3-A299-00C04F8EF6AF}, and {BDEADF00-C265-11D0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}. Under the Ratings folder there is nothing. Under the OldWinApp folder there is NoRealMode ("1"). *Note that all the values in brackets are the values of that specific reg key. Inetcpl.cpl is found in: - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\inetcpl.cpl - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{9B0EFD60-F7B0-11D0-BAEF-00C04FC308C9} - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\2 - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\3 - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\4 - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\Applications\inetcpl.cpl - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\CLSID\{9B0EFD60-F7B0-11D0-BAEF-00C04FC308C9}\DefaultIcon - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\ACCESSIBILITY - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\BROWSE - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\BROWSE\ULINKS - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\CRYPTO - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\HTTP - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\JAVA_VM - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\MULTIMEDIA - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\PRINT - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\SEARCHING - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\SEARCHING\AUTOSEARCH As you can see it is found in MANY places in the registry. It was found a few more times but it was part of the data in reg values like "Bitmap" and "Icon" so I left them out. I hope this info will help you help me. Thanks.

There's nothing in there. No Policies. Nothing of note anyway. Sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase. You seemed to have stumped me. I did find this Q article from the Microsoft Knowledge base: Clicking "Internet Options" on the Tools Menu Returns Error Message But you can access it from control panel and from the run menu, so this is not the cause. I'm thinking a pointer in the registry is off, but I don't have the knowledge to fix that. If the reinstall of ME did not fix it, then it is something that is not easily effected. Two more ideas... then I give: 1)Try a clean boot. Make sure nothing running in the background is causing this. To do this: Go to start>>run>>msconfig. Click on selective startup. Take the check out of everything underneath. Click apply ok and reboot when prompted. When you get back up, it will be ugly. We have turned off your video driver for now. You may also not be able to reach the internet... it depends on what kind of internet connection you have. You can put all back to rights in a moment, but I want to make sure something running is not causing this. Open up one of those problem children from the Tools menues. Does it come up without error? If you did get the error, just put everything back by going back to msconfig and putting a dot in Normal startup. If you did not get the error... hurrah!!!... now you have to figure out what is causing that mess. 2)Second idea: Since you reinstalled ME, you are back to the first version of IE 5.5. First open internet options from the control panel. Go to the advanced tab. Select restore defaults. Then go to the windows update site and download/install a newer version of IE (5.5 SP1 perferably). When that is finished, if you are still having a problem, go to add/remove programs in the control panel. Highlight IE and click remove. It will give you some choices. Choose repair. Lets see where we are from there.