Windows 7 Firewall is Broken

[EXCellR8]

OS=Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1 build 7601 (6.1.7601)

Ran into an issue on a coworker's laptop that's really driving me nuts. For some reason the Windows firewall is totally disabled and I cannot seem to get it, or it's dependencies, to start again. The computer has remotely-managed AV software but I don't think that's the cause; even if I uninstall it locally the Windows firewall remains disabled. I ran into this problem after I could not ping this particular computer or remotely connect to it. I ran some diagnostics and scanned the OS for damaged files but nothing comes up. The device also seems free of malware even though I suppose this could be related to previous infections.

Is this fixable or should I advise him to do a clean or repair installation of Windows? When I try to start the firewall services all I get is generic errors and I've even tried to replace some reg files with those from a fully functioning system. Nothing has helped this though so I'm about to just wipe it clean and start from scratch--just figured I'd ask as there is bound to be someone more keen on this than myself.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Third-party firewalls will disable the Native one. Just locally un-installing it may not be enough. There may be domain-based GPOs present. Why is he trying to override company IT though? We don't support doing that here.

 

[EXCellR8]

He's not. The AV software is Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security and is remotely managed through an admin console, in which I have full access to. The software is deployed to all of the machines on the work domain but this seems to be an isolated problem, as all the other computers are connectable even if the firewall is disabled. On this particular laptop, though, all of the native Windows firewall services seem completely broken and we are unable to connect to the computer remotely because of it. The computer is able to go online and access the web normally though, so it's affecting all incoming connection requests. I can basically get the IP address of the system, along with the MAC, but that's it.

The user informed me yesterday that he doesn't really need to use the VPN and/or Remote Desktop from home now that the weather has settled down, so it's not pressing I'm just not sure why I am unable to fix the Windows native firewall. To my knowledge, the firewall relies on a few other services that run in the background and without those running the PC just blocks ping and all other incoming connection requests. This doesn't happen if another third party firewall is installed.

 

[mxnerd]

Check event viewer and see what error messages it got.

A repair installation might just fix the problem.

 

[EXCellR8]

I'm gonna have to at some point... Base Filtering Engine fails to start too, even with a brand new .reg entry.