ScreamingSlave

I don't like XP's integrated firewall, so I downloaded Comodo. I checked the box to disable XP's firewall and forgot about it, until I ran Q3A and got an 'Allow/Deny' prompt from it. So I went back into Windows and checked the Windows Firewall settings, and sure enough, it was still enabled. But the options to enable/disable are grayed out, and the top of the box says, "For your safety, some options are managed by Group Policy." So I dug around gpedit.msc for relevant settings, but it's still stuck that way. Any suggestions?

Mac Daddy

Thats really strange almost sounds like a virus ... I always leave windows firewall disabled as well with no issues. I would check the site you got that program from and run a program like Spybot S&D or CWshredder to make sure you didn't pick up something in addware or malware as well ....

Hope that helps

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"People who live in glass houses shouldn't cast stones"

ScreamingSlave

I downloaded the program from MajorGeeks, so please spare me of all the Geek Squad speeches (e.g. "Scan for malware! Defrag your drive! Run Disk Cleanup!"). I know "Google is my friend," too, but that doesn't help either. Anything else?

Mac Daddy

No speeches here just some things to check

Other than that I have no idea haven't changed those settings except to shut the Winblows firewall off. Something has altered those setting if its windows you may have to use a restore point to reset it ........

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"People who live in glass houses shouldn't cast stones"

nYdGeo

This is very strange behavior, too. If I understand this, the firewall is stuck "On" instead of off. I'm very curious as to whether or not you can you go to the other tabs, and are those options available or grayed out also? I've never seen anything like that on a workstation except in a domain where it was simply a policy.

Assuming that you have scanned with the usual (spyware, conventional AV), and then the unusual (Stinger, etc) and came up clean, I would try what Mac Daddy suggested and kill the "Internet Connection Sharing/Firewall Service". I doubt that many of us would miss the Internet Connection Sharing, and it'll also get the Windows Firewall out of the way of your Comodo efforts.

Just a side note: if my PC did what you are describing (again assuming that I understand what you noted) and I was unable to completely resolve it by any means, returning all functionality to normal, I'd reinstall or in the case of many OEM machines, do a complete restore. I would not like that lack of control at all, and I'm sure that you don't either.

Good luck!