Well, I tried the tool. You need to log in with a Domain account, so it is no good to manage local policies.
The changes will be reflected in the following folder:
<system drive>:\WINDOWS\system32\GroupPolicy.
In the machine folder you will find the registry.pol file (Computer Configuration section)
User is the User configuration. There you can find the settings for the buttons at <system Drive>:\WINDOWS\system32\GroupPolicy\User\MICROSOFT\IEAK\BRANDING\BTOOLBAR
Take a look to see what you have there.
Remember that XP has a feature called fast user logon, which lets you logon before aplying all policies. Computer policies are applied before the logon screen. User policies are aplied after the logon screen. Windows XP lets you login before finishing the policies procesing and will do the whenever it is bored I recomend turning this feature off while testing. Do it from
Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ System \ Logon \
"Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon"
You can also run this command from the prompt windows "gpupdate /force"
This will force update of the policies. You might have to log off, or even restart for some to be applied.
Ahh, just one thing. Why all this info?? Well, first you have to make sure the policy is working. Some are picky. Notice from the location that I gave you that it creates a copy of the icons. I didn't see a copy of the script that the button uses thought.
The adm files in the adm folder are the files that load the scetions on the group policies. I don't remember how to check for the version, but there are many, many versions. You can also load new adm files. For example, you can load the wuau for Windows update (needed if you use SUS or WUS). There are adm files for Office. You can download a whole adm pack from MS web site. I believe those are the ones actually being applied. And the ones that give you the settings are in <System Drive>:\WINDOWS\inf.
Do you have Virtual PC? Could you set a system for a sandbox and see whether replacing the adm files replaces the policies? I believe that is the case, but I would have to test to feel more positive about it. I might even set a sandbox tomorrow Just for that