Windows XP SP3 Enables The Firewall even If you have it disabled as a Group Policy! Quick Fix!

April 30, 2008 in Uncategorized

So after installing Windows XP SP3 this morning I noticed that the Windows Firewall popped up on restart asking me if I wanted to allow My VNC server access to the internet then my instant messenger. WTF?

I hate the Windows Firewall. You can see my feelings illustrated by the picture at the top of top of this post. I have a domain group policy in place – explicitly disabling the service via a few options. That didn’t stop them from re-enabling it.

After closer inspection I discovered M$ has renamed the Firewall services’ name to be “SharedAccess” and this breaks some stuff. (I am sure they did it intentionally for the MalWare authors of the world!)

Since we do not use the Windows Firewall in my domain it is NOT configured – so when it automagically pops on – SHIT DON”T WORK FOR THE GOOD OLD END USERS!

After querying my machine for services using this command:

sc query type= service (you need the space after the = sign!!)

I got a full listing of my services and after scrolling down I found this:

Now I needed a quick work-a-round for my SP3 test group. I created a line in my default user login script:

sc config “SharedAccess” start= disabled

And that shut it down! Thanks for letting me know M$ as always I appreciate the curve ball. I know your just keeping us Admin’s on our toes!

On some happier notes, I am seeing some other great results with memory allocation and overall speediness. I am digging the updated MSTSC remote desktop client as well.

_TheNotSoBetaTestingAdmiN_

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