How do I turn off or remove Group Policy on an XP Pro comp..

I recently installed Windows Live One Care on my office computers and I no
longer have control over things like the firewalls and file sharing. As one
example, all of my drives on both my graphics workstation and my printer RIP
workstation are shared (permission to "Everyone"), and I can SEE all of the
other computer's shared drives from each one. I can open and write files on
my graphics machine from the RIP machine, but when I try to access files on
the RIP machine from my graphics machine I get a message that I don't have
permission.

When I try to change firewall and/or file sharing settings on either
machine, I am told that those setting are controlled by Group Policy. I've
been using XP since it first came out and I've never even HEARD ABOUT Group
Policy before, so I'm guessing it was something that One Care either
installed or activated. There is a TON of information on how to configure
Group Policy, but not a word anywhere that I can find on how to get rid of it.

My assistant and I are the only 2 people who use any of the 4 computers on
my office network, so I don't need Group Policy, and my network was
functioning EXACTLY the way I wanted it to without Group Policy.

One other change at about the same time as my switch to One Care was that I
replaced my office laptop and the new one (among the largest computer-related
mistakes I've ever made) runs Vista Home Premium. Could it have been Vista,
not One Care, which forced Group Policy on me?

Any help will be much appreciated.
Paul

PH Graphics wrote:
> I recently installed Windows Live One Care on my office computers and
> I no longer have control over things like the firewalls and file
> sharing. As one example, all of my drives on both my graphics
> workstation and my printer RIP workstation are shared (permission to
> "Everyone"), and I can SEE all of the other computer's shared drives
> from each one. I can open and write files on my graphics machine
> from the RIP machine, but when I try to access files on the RIP
> machine from my graphics machine I get a message that I don't have
> permission.
>
> When I try to change firewall and/or file sharing settings on either
> machine, I am told that those setting are controlled by Group Policy.
> I've been using XP since it first came out and I've never even HEARD
> ABOUT Group Policy before, so I'm guessing it was something that One
> Care either installed or activated. There is a TON of information on
> how to configure Group Policy, but not a word anywhere that I can
> find on how to get rid of it.
>
> My assistant and I are the only 2 people who use any of the 4
> computers on
> my office network, so I don't need Group Policy, and my network was
> functioning EXACTLY the way I wanted it to without Group Policy.
>
> One other change at about the same time as my switch to One Care was
> that I replaced my office laptop and the new one (among the largest
> computer-related mistakes I've ever made) runs Vista Home Premium.
> Could it have been Vista, not One Care, which forced Group Policy on
> me?
>
> Any help will be much appreciated.
> Paul

Firstly, if you don't have an active directory domain, you aren't using
group policy. You have *local* policies on XP- and Vista can't have anything
to do with this.
I'd try uninstalling Windows Live One Care and see if the problem goes away.
If you want to use it, check with their support.