Windows Firewall repair?

[Panama Red]

Working on an HP desktop that will not allow access to the XP Firewall. MS Knowledge Base has one article indicating that improper removal of McAfee Personal Firewall can cause this with the solution being to reinstall the MPF and remove it with it's own removal tool. There is evidence of MPF having been previously installed (along with several other Antispyware programs and firewalls) but the owner doesn't have a copy to reinstall it. This computer is behind a router so the Windows Firewall is redundant at this point. I've Disabled the Security Center in Services to prevent the nuisance of continual notification that the Firewall is off. Anyone have any experience correcting this problem possibly with Regedit?

edit: Forgot to mention that I've tried a Repair/Install and I've run: sfc /scannow. Plus I renamed the Svchost file and XP created a new one.

[rightcoast]

PR, I don't know how to reinstall the ICF. You said you disabled the Security Center in Services though right? I was just thinking maybe you can leave the Security Center center running and do the "I have my own firewall I will monitor myself" inside the Security Center under Recommendations to stop the notification and leave the Security Center intact for the other two.

[Panama Red]

Thanx, rc. Certainly something to keep in mind.

[thefultonhow]

I assume you've checked that the service is set to automatic startup and you've looked to make sure that all the service dependencies are being satisfied? If there's a dependency in there that no longer exists, you can clear it out through the registry, but I don't remember how. Otherwise, I'm stumped.