Restriction Warning

July 16, 2007 2:04 PM

Administrator has prohibited access to CD/DVD ROM drives

I run Win XP Home on my stand-alone home computer. There's no administrator, and I assume I have administrator rights. A couple of days ago (I think after an auto-download from Microsoft), a message started appearing at logon:

Restriction Warning
Administrator has prohibited access to CD/DVD ROM drives.

Also, I have no access to my the thumb drive in a USB port.

Please help me get my computer back.

posted by KRS to computers & internet (3 comments total)

The if this is an update then a fix will suffice. If this is a virus or other malicious attack you should reformat.

The google is kind on this issue too.
posted by TheDukeofLancaster at 2:52 PM on July 16, 2007

It should go without saying, check for any unusual adware / spyware / malware. Use something like HijackThis or even WinXP's built-in 'msconfig' to get an idea of what third-party processes and services are running, and eliminate anything that's suspicious.

If the culprit was indeed a Windows Update, you can always uninstall the last few updates by going to Add or Remove Programs. Be sure to check the "Show updates" box at the top of the window.

Finally, do you ever use programs like DaemonTools or Alcohol 120% to mount CD or DVD images (.ISOs etc) in virtual drives, and if so have you ever tried any of the tools designed to "hide" these virtual drives from copy protection schemes? Some of them work by tweaking your registry to either hide the drives completely or to prevent the system (or select processes) from accessing them. If a tool like this has gone wrong, it might cause the effects you're describing. The fix in that case would depend on what program was used to lock or hide the drives in the first place; in most cases you can use that same program to undo the registry changes.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.
posted by herichon at 5:59 PM on July 16, 2007

Google seems to think that a program called awserv.exe, perhaps related to Intel Desktop Utilities or AdminWorks, is a likely suspect here. Might check to see if you have something like that running and if so, try disabling it.
posted by herichon at 7:09 PM on July 16, 2007