What is this error: "The Group Policy Client service failed the logon."

This happens when logging in as a regular user in Vista:

- Click the user's icon
- "Welcome" is displayed for half a second
- Then on the same logon screen in white letters:
"The Group Policy Client service failed the logon."
"Access is denied."
<OK>
- Click the <OK> button and it says, "Logging off..." and returns to
the users' icons


This only happens to one user account. What is the Group Policy
Client and why did it fail the logon?

[gent]

I would really LOVE an answer to this, It's been plaguing me on a few systems in the domain, I've even reinstalled one unit and upon first boot it gives off that error for this user.

[dford]

We have had this issue using roaming profiles over 2k3/vista network. A selection if users were unable to login to machines and recieved this error message. All I did to resolve was remove the users cached profiles from the local hard drive c:\users\%usernname%.

[DerekE]

I had the same problem today, and figured out if you go into regedit.

-Go to \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\

-Select the Profile that is having problem and rename the Guid to GUID1

-Close out of Regedit

-Logoff

-Then login with the user that was having the problem

This at least worked for me, hope it helps.

DerekE

[gotbud32]

Looks like it was the NTUSER.DAT file you deleted. The solutions I get involve restoring that file from a backup, or recreating the windows profile. I've attached a document that explains how to do this, I would suggest trying this on one of the user accounts, the one least important to you, and see if it works. Make sure you back up anything you don't want to lose. This suggests to back it up to a network location, in your case, you could create a folder on your C: drive, and name it Backup. Then copy the stuff to that folder, this process will not touch that folder, or delete it by accident.

Re-Create%20Windows%20Profile.pdf

<a href="C:\Users\owner\Documents\help.htm">click here</a>

Hi, I'm having the same problem and thanks for your advice, however when I
drill down to the problem user through regedit as you suggest I'm not sure
what you mean be renaming the Guid to GUID1. I can't see any reference to
this in the window. Anthony

[mrtechno]

1) **RENAME** the roaming profile on the domain controller, or wherever it is you store the roaming profiles. (dont delete or you will loose all of the data for the user)

2) have the user log in again.

3) pull all the important data from inside the old roaming profile that you renamed, My Documents, any outlook pst data, favorites, etc.


This is not ideal and is in no way a fix for this error; however, if you do not want to spend countless hours trying to fix before giving up anyway, just follow the above steps.

[GMNAK]

I had this same problem and I just got off the phone with Dell and they helped me do just about what you all have said to do.
BUT is there any way to get the "corrupted/failed logon" users old desktop back? Unfortunately I had a few files not back up on the desktop.
Any ideas?

[firstcomp]

No one addresses the issue of not being able to logon to Vista. How do I logon if my only user is not available, safe mode?

[adaviel]

I found this thread on the first Google hit after getting the error myself, so I thought I'd post my story.

I was messing around with registry entries trying to stop a normal user getting infected with viruses - or rather, having malware start up when they log in. I removed the user's full access from their registry key hive with regedit, and then when try try to login they got the error "Group Policy Client service failed the logon". This on a laptop with Vista Home Premium, no domain controller or network login.

When the user logs out, their registry key is unloaded into NTUSER.DAT. So restoring this file to an earlier state, either with system restore or from a backup, fixes the problem. If the user is still logged on, an administrator can change the registry permissions so that they can reconnect with their logged-on session.

I have not pinned down exactly which registry key is responsible - however, the classes hive can be locked against write, as can the software key tree (which contains Run and RunOnce), without generating the error.

[Isaac1]

I was also facing the similar kind of problem with my system a few days back and I guess I can help you out in this case. Now if you really want to solve this problem then you have to just go to start and then select the run in that type regedit now you just have to go to the Go to \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\. And now you have to find the profile that is causing you the problems and then rename the GUID to GUID1 and later on close the regedit. I am sure that doing the same will definitely help you out in this one.

[alexrose]

Ok so I have windows 7 and the same problem. The thing I have only one account on my laptop, and it won't let me into it. So I can't access the actual computer. So, what on earth do I do?

[JAMES_911]

Originally Posted by alexrose

Ok so I have windows 7 and the same problem. The thing I have only one account on my laptop, and it won't let me into it. So I can't access the actual computer. So, what on earth do I do?

Did you perform the system restore from the Windows Recovery Environment? If not, I would suggest you to perform a system restore from the Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, you need to have the Windows 7 Operating System DVD. Also, to use System Restore option, there must be a System Restore point at which the logon was successful.

[charlie888]

I'm not sure what causes this problem, but I restored a previous version of my user profile, and that fixed the issue. I'm on Win7. Went to Computer, opened C drive, opened Users, clicked on Properties for the problem user account, and Restore Previous Version tab of user profile. Problem fixed.

In the future, you may want to consider creating additional accounts on your system to provide access if one of your user accounts is compromised.

[carib909]

I am using Windows 7. I have the same error. I never logged on to a domain though. There are no entries in the profile list that I can identify as users. I have two "Default" listings. I previously deleted the ntuser.dat file and then recovered it from the recycle bin, but I was being told that I was signed on with a temporary profile. Windows did a repair after I tried to load a Registry BU. (I think the BU was for a different version of Windows) I can log on with the "Administrator" account, but my other account gives my the Group Policy Client Services error.