Administrative Templates CSE is processed with errors

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

One or more registry-based policy settings are not applied to the computer or user. As a result some components and applications that are managed through registry-based Group Policy will not function according to administrator defined policies.

Cause

This error indicates that there is a missing file in a Group Policy object (GPO). GPOs reside on the domain controller's SYSVOL share, and a local GPO also resides on the local computer's system drive.

The event indicates that it was trying to access a file named "registry.pol" The file registry.pol might be corrupt and the event log describes the location of the corrupted file.

This error can also occur in the event of an improper registry configuration. Group Policy stores registry-based policy settings in the registry. If these registry keys have Access Control Lists (ACLs) that prevent the system from writing to this values, this failure can occur.

The following Userenv event numbers trigger this alert:

  • 1019

  • 1020 : Windows cannot create registry key <registry key>. (The parameter is incorrect. ).

  • 1022

  • 1043 : Windows cannot access the registry information at C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\registry.pol. (Access is denied).

  • 1096 : Windows cannot access the registry policy file, <path to .pol file>. (<error description>).

Solution

If a problem with the registry.pol is indicated, verify that the file is present at the indicated path on all domain controllers. The Windows ServerĀ 2003 Group Policy Infrastructure whitepaper describes the layout of Group Policy information about domain controllers. Domain replication problems are indicated if replicas of the file are missing or if the files cannot be accessed by the targets of the GPO. Troubleshooting the File Replication service (FRS) and the Distributed File System (DFS) of the domain controller's SYSVOL share can diagnose the cause of the replication errors. Replication is not an issue if the file is part of the local GPO.

If the file is present, it might be corrupt. To determine this, use the Group Policy Object Editor snap-in to edit the GPO in which the file resides. If the Administrative Templates node under either User Configuration or Computer Configuration displays an error, you can safely assume that this file is corrupted.

To recover a corrupt or missing registry.pol file, use the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) to restore the GPO from a backup.

If the file is missing due to replication errors, the replication issue with FRS or DFS must be addressed. After you resolve the replication problems, the error condition will also be resolved. The SONAR tool can be used to diagnose FRS problems.

If an improper registry configuration caused the error, examine the policy registry keys of the trees HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (and HKEY_CURRENT_USER if the problem occurred with a specific user logged in). Deleting these subtrees can fix the problem, but be aware that any edits to the registry can cause unexpected problems and must never take place without backup precautions.