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

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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?

All,

I've been running a Vista Ultimate machine on a Client / Server network for
some time. I'm not sure if it's connected to the problem or not, but I've
just completed rebuilding the Active Directory on a Server 2003 R2 database
following a corruption.

I use to be able to log onto the domain fine before, now I receive the
following message when I try logging on from the Vista machine using my
normal userid, Admin is ok:

"The Group Policy Client service failed the logon. Access is denied."

Other users can log on using the Vista machine, and I can log on to the
domain from other machines. Anyone have any suggestions? I have found 2
references on the Net, neither has a solution.

After searching various fora this appears to be a relatively new issue. Any
technical support would be appreciated.

It could be the profile issue. Any errors in the event viewer? Or this search result may help,

Solved: one user uses temp profile ...Post Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 4:24 am Post subject: Solved: one user uses temp profile when logon Vista, Reply with quote ...

I deleted the user profile on the server - My Docs, App Data and Desktop are
individually redirected to separate folders. Disabled Offline File Caching in
GPO and deleted the Users/userid profile on the client.

Login was restored however I continue to receive a Profile error on the
client (uses a temp Profile). Although this action reenabled logins, I
suspect I have other issues following the AD database corruption and
subsequent rebuild.

I plan to reinstall the server before I have another failure.

I lost about 8 hours solving this one...
In Windows Vista you have to access User Accounts, in the Control Panel. Then, in the left taskbar you have "Configure Advance User Profile Properties". There you can see all the users and respective profile types (local and roaming).

It's in the roaming profiles you have a problem. When it tries to logon, (beats me too) it isnt a authenticated user, so, the server rejects it.

In User Accounts, you have to select "Manage User Accounts", and Add an user for that computer. It asks for Username and Domain, fill in the blanks and try again...

After many, many, many, many tries, i found the solution... wish it helps you...

[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.

[gent]

anyway you can explain what I would need to do here?

I have basically the same issue and have been googling it for over a week.

User is on a domain, should have a roaming profile as well. Just installed Vista, and as soon as he go's to login he gets that exact error msg and access is denied, However I can login to the machine fine, as well as another individual as well. We eventually reimaged the machine again and came to the exact same error.

We've found we can delete his "profile" or folder from users, it will then allow him to login but only on a temp profile that wont save. If we try to create that folder again, it results back into the aformentioned error again. We have tried to delete his profile off of the server as well figuring it's roaming it could be pulling some bad info.

I'm completely stumped on this. Any suggestions to even try would be helpful.

I have Vista Home Premium. When I try to logon to the admin acct I get the
above message. No network use only single computer. All the files I use
regularly are accessed through the admin acct, so I can't delete acct and
make a new one. I am so-so computer literate but the discussions I found
seem to apply to networks. I need to be able to save all the files/documents
from the unaccessable acct. Please help!
--
Dawna

I too am having the same problem. My main issue is that none of my accounts
(one on a domain that does not exist anymore, and one that I created by
changing to a workgroup rather than the domain which, as said before, does
not exist anymore, hence the switch in the first place) will connect and let
me in.

The Domain account gives me the "the group policy client service failed the
logon" issue and log cycles.
The new workgroup account just cycles to a logging out and goes back to the
main login screen.

and of course, the information that I need to get my 90 days product support
from microsoft is on the computer, and I don't have any users that can log
into the system to get said information.

[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%.

I am having the same problem and I only have one user set up on this pc. I
have not been able to access the pc at all. HELP!!!

[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