Windows cannot display Windows Firewall settings

From Helpful

Diagnosis: (Windows XP)

• Windows complains you have the firewall disabled
• Trying to enable it yields something like ("Due to an unidentified problem,") "Windows cannot display Windows Firewall Settings."

In my case (and apparently many others), this was because spyware disabled the windows firewall, removing XP's "Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)" service. To verify this, see the windows service list and look for an entry called that.

If it is entirely missing, remove the spyware and try:

rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection Ndi-Steelhead 132 %windir%\inf\netrass.inf

This installs the firewall service. It likely also resets some things(verify).

After you do that, you may need a:

NETSH FIREWALL RESET

...to set the firewall back to default settings, you should have a working firewall again, though you may want configure and lock it down a little again.

See also:

• The Security Center could not change your Automatic Update settings