Vista - Total System Lockout

My husband was making changes to Norton System Works and now when trying to
open most applications we keep getting the alert "This operation has been
cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact
your system admistrator". We can't open anything in Control Panel and don't
even have access to System Restore. Please help as we are going nuts trying
to work this out!

Hello shredder,
Go to Safe mode, do a system restore there. Pick the date BEFORE he made the changes to Norton. If it is successful, don't make those changes until you post what those changes are, and ask whether one of them is the cause of the problem.

Unfortunately can't even do System Restore in safe mode. "Restrictions"
still apply.

"t-4-2" wrote:

Hello shredder,
Ask your husband to post the changes he made on Norton System Works. List them if he can remember. Let the MVPs have a look at them.

He can't remember what he did! For some reason Norton had stopped
automatically updating and kept asking to run live update each time we turned
the lap top on. This annoyed him so he went into Norton System Works and
pulled up the page about security and parental controls etc. He didn't think
that he did anything major but from then on everything was locked up. Thanks
for your suggestions but I think I'm going to have to take it to someone. If
I get it fixed I'll let you know what it was!

"t-4-2" wrote:

Hello shredder,
That "someone" I presume is a pro. No argument there. Just make sure that person is really qualified And trustworthy, because it's going to cost you Money.
My final observation/suggestion : uninstall Norton entirely. Norton and Vista are not known to enjoy each other's companion. If your laptop is for home use and not for business,
you should check out AVAST or AVG. They have very good reputation and , hard to believe, they are free. All you have to do is type their names on google search box, and you'll find them. Good luck.