[SOLVED] Locked myself out of gpedit.msc.

[lovehatemycomputer]

Hi, I was recently following a guide for hardening Windows 7 security, and in gpedit.msc, I enabled "Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – Windows Components – Credential User Interface – Require trusted path for credential entry."

Now, when I try to run a program in administrator mode, I am prompted to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to enter credentials. However, when I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete, I get a message that "The logon process was unable to display security and logon options when CTRL+ALT+DELETE was pressed. If the operating system does not respond, press ESC or restart the computer by using the power switch."

I can't get back into gpedit.msc to change the setting back, and I can't run any programs as an administrator. I confess that I have lately been changing a lot of settings because I think there is some exploit on the computer, but I was working on a project and didn't dare try a reformat or start a repair process until that was finished....so I just shut down a lot of services and changed some settings to try to harden things. Now I messed up with gpedit and am also afraid I might have done something separately to prevent the security and logon options from showing when I press Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

Can you possibly help me get back into gpedit so I can reverse this setting and run programs as an administrator again? Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

I am currently logged in as an administrator, but that doesn't seem to help.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

At this point you don't have a choice. Format and reinstall. Once you manage to lock out your admin level account it's game over. There are no other options.

 

[lovehatemycomputer]

Thank you for the reply. The gpedit issue weirdly resolved itself, but the computer needs to be reformatted anyway.

I appreciate your help.

 

[USAFRet]

"Locked myself out of gpedit.msc"

This is one of the many things that full drive backups are for.
To recover from a major 'oops'