Group Policies&Outlook Express

[seekinwhite]

Is it recomandable to remove those?

How can i remove those from windows instalation?

Edited March 4, 2009 by seekinwhite

[hgary1]

Your not going want to do this but.... Security is a big issue, unless your computer is not going to ever going to be on the Internet, I wouldn't bother removing anything that is related to the security features.

If something should happen to the SID file database your going to be screwed, you won't be able to access any of your object files, like My Documents, Music etc. NTFS requires these policies, and I'm sure you don't want to run your hard drive in FAT32 file system.

Outlook express is another matter, but I rather have it for compatibility issues and all, you can find plenty of POP3 Mail programs out there. Saving a few megabytes is not worth the hassle, especially with DVDs and 250 GB or more of disk space.

Using a separate account with a password , for general user, web surfing and the alike, about 95% of the time, you'll want to use this account and logging in as an administrator with a password, for installing new programs and making system changes.

This will help you against hackers and websites that contain viruses.

Here is a better way, although not recommended either.

Enable/Disable Local Group Policy Objects

In a non-networked environment (or in a networked environment that does not have a domain controller), the local Group Policy object's settings are more important, because they are not overwritten by other Group Policy objects. You can open the Group Policy snap-in to edit the local Group Policy object that is stored on your local computer. Click Group Policy to open the local Group Policy object. This tweak allows you to disable Local Group Policy Objects.

[start] [Run] [Regedit]

Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

[ In most cases, this registry key is not present and will need to be created ]

Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.

Data Type: DWORD Value // Value Name: DisableGPO

Setting for Value Data: [0 = Default (Enabled) / 1 = Disabled]

Exit Registry and Reboot

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Enable/Disable Local Group Policy Objects

In a non-networked environment (or in a networked environment that does not have a domain controller), the local Group Policy object's settings are more important, because they are not overwritten by other Group Policy objects. You can open the Group Policy snap-in to edit the local Group Policy object that is stored on your local computer. Click Group Policy to open the local Group Policy object. This tweak allows you to disable Local Group Policy Objects.

[start] [Run] [Regedit]

Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

[ In most cases, this registry key is not present and will need to be created ]

Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.

Data Type: DWORD Value // Value Name: DisableGPO

Setting for Value Data: [0 = Default (Enabled) / 1 = Disabled]

Exit Registry and Reboot

Ive never seen that reg key actually work. If GPOs were that easy to disable theyd be worthless.

http://windowsitpro.com/WindowsSecurity/ar...oup-policy.html

You're referring to a registry value that existed in a beta version of Windows 2000. The setting was a REG_DWORD value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System registry subkey; the value was called DisableGPO and set to 1. However, this tweak has no effect on the final release of Windows XP or Win2K. The computer always applies Group Policy whether or not this value exists.

as for removing windows components is concerned, you are better of just changing their services to not start with windows. blackviper has more info on which ones can be safely disabled and in some cases, the side effects of disabling a given service.

[hgary1]

Well that is why I don't recommend changing the security setting, in either case, it's just going to turn out bad.

I rather have a few less megabytes on my hard drive then to deal with the headache of loss data and trying to deal with a corrupted registry or worse.

Thanks

Gary

[fdv]

Also, someone should point out that removing Outlook Express will later cause problems with an MS Office install when you try to install regular Outlook. (I wrote an OE RE-installer that someone has linked in the 'what not to remove' thread, IIRC)