XP Firewall is greyed out, cant enable or disable

[scottingh]

i have a problem with my Windows XP Firewall.:(
it all started after removing WindowsAntivirus2009 a rogue spyware with Norton Antivirus. Norton must have done something to my firewall as now it cannot be enabled or disabled. it is just greyed out.
please help:(

[laurentio]

Umh...it is not that simple.
Do you have SP2 or SP3 installed?
Is that Norton "thingy" still on your PC? If it is, then remove it - uninstall it, restart the computer and see if Windows Firewall gets back to normal. Can you run ICS?
Next time install a proper antivirus solution.;)

If Norton is not there anymore then let's try these lines but please make sure you're logged in as an Admin:

1) Start button, run box, copy and paste this line: 'netsh firewall reset' then press enter. (This command should turn the firewall back on using the settings from %windir%\inf\netfw.inf.)

2) Start button, run box, and type regedit. Press enter. A new windows should open:
Find and rename the following registry key - folder. (You may be able to delete it but let's just rename it).
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall
Just rename the WindowsFirewall key to WindowsFirewall2
On a non-affected system, The WindowsFirewall key and subkeys did NOT exist at all.

3) Start button, run box, copy and paste this line: 'rundll32 wbemupgd, UpgradeRepository'
This command is used to detect and repair a corrupted WMI Repository. The results are stored in the setup.log (%windir%\system32\wbem\logs\setup.log) file.

Please let us know if the above posted solution has helped you or not.
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Thank you.

[scottingh]

It worked!
This is what i did. I have removed the existing protection (Norton) and restarted.
I have then tried solution 1 and restarted.
Nothing.
Tried solution 2 and restarted. DONE! The firewall was back to life, enabled.
I have then downloaded and installed NOD32 free trial for 30 days and scanned the whole PC.
Nod32 has found 27 threats on my computer and this is scary knowing that the PC was "protected" by Norton 2008 :(
Windows firewall is back now, my computer is faster then ever before, cleaned and optimized.
I just want to say thank you for this brilliant idea.(the forum)
You're the best!

[laurentio]

well done! glad you did it.
regards,