Troubleshooting "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" issues from Outlook Links
I'll start this guide by saying that I'm presuming that you are SURE that the site you are trying access is up and accessible from your location.
Now that that's over I recently experienced a problem where users (mostly Windows 7 IE8 users, but some XP IE8 users) where stating that when they clicked on a link in an email that led them to certain intranet sites it would give an "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" page. However if the user clicked refresh, or went to the page directly it would work just fine.
This would occur if IE was already open (the link created a new tab) or if IE was not already opened (the link opened IE).
I tried running IE in "no-addon" mode and it worked fine (if IE was opened in "no-addion" mode and the link was clicked it created a tab in the "no-addon" environment) so I figured it was an addon.
However even after disabling all add ins in IE the symptoms persisted.
After a lot of work I decided to go into IE advanced options and untick the "Enable third-party browser extensions" box. This also didn't work. However I couldn't help noticing that some of the addons where still enabled.
So I disabled them all again and ensured that box was ticked.
After a fair bit of trial and error it was determined the thing causing the problem was the Sophos web scanner plugin that came with our antivirus solution.
So with the 3rd party com addons disabled and the Sophos addon disabled the problems disappeared.
We distributed this option and disabled the addon using group policy and everything was fine.
You may not have the same problem with the same addon but I guess the moral of the story is that no matter how unlikely it seems an IE8 plugin could still be causing the problem. Personally I think they're responsible for the GFC but who knows.
It also seems we aren't the only ones experiencing problems with the Sophos web scanner plugin for IE and that there is a way to disable it via Sophos but we added the GPO options just to be sure it was dead.
UPDATE (04/07) : This fix appears to have fixed some users however others are still experiencing the problem. Hopefully I’ll post again soon with a more comprehensive fix.
Allow Non-Administrators to edit Power Settings in Windows XP
So you want to remove administrator permissions from a user, but still have them be able to edit "Power Settings". All you have to do is change a couple of permissions in the registry. Below you will find how to do this, and do it quickly, easily, and in a manner that can be pushed out to many machines at once.
The best way to do this is to use "regini". Regini is included with Windows XP (unlike icacls or a few other methods people suggest).
Regini is a command line tool that parses a standard text file to get directions on what to change in the registry. It allows changing of values, and changing of permissions.
This is the text file we used to allow everyone globally access the registry settings to do with the "Power Configuration":
\registry\machine\software\microsoft\windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\PowerCfgGlobalPowerPolicy [1 5 7 17]PowerPolicies [1 5 7 17]0 [1 5 7 17]1 [1 5 7 17]2 [1 5 7 17]3 [1 5 7 17]4 [1 5 7 17]5 [1 5 7 17]6 [1 5 7 17]
Basically that sets permissions on a couple of keys under "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\PowerCfg" to allow everyone accessl
Putting the text above into a TXT file and running regini path\to\txtfile will solve all the problems instantly.
Enjoy 
