Group Policy Preferences not applying on Vista with Service Pack 2

Hi,

I'm in the process of deploying Vista with Service Pack 2, and I'm using
the ISO which has SP2 integrated.

But now Group Policy Preferences doesn't work anymore.

The client side extensions (KB943729) are included in SP2 according to this:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

How do I fix this problem?

BTW: KB943729 won't install on Vista SP2 ("This update does not apply to
this system").

Jostein Klemmetsrud

Hello Jostein,

What error message is displayed or in the event viewer? What exact does not
work?

Drive Maps and Files (the only things in preferences I currently use)
does not work.

Where should I look in the event viewer?

On a Vista SP1 machine (with KB943729 installed) I get messages in
Microsoft / GroupPolicy / Operational, like:

"Starting Group Policy Drive Maps Extension Processing"

and

"Starting Group Policy Files Extension Processing"

But on my SP2 machine these messages do not appear (or any error
messages related to these extensions for that matter).

Can you check whether the Preference Client Side Extensions (CSEs) are
installed on the SP2 machine - or whether they're removed?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\GPExtensions\

It should have these subfolders:

Files Extension: {7150F9BF-48AD-4da4-A49C-29EF4A8369BA}
Drive Maps Extension: {5794DAFD-BE60-433f-88A2-1A31939AC01F}

Can you try to re-install the CSEs?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

When I try to install this update I get this message: "This update does
not apply to this system".

It also says on the page:

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Vista; Windows Vista Service Pack 1

So I guess that's why I get the message.

I have managed to install the update by first extracting it and then
installing it with pkgmkr.exe. And then of course, everything works as
it should.

It seems the list of updates included in SP2 is incorrect or that
something is broken in SP2.

Well, those Preferences are for Windows Vista SP1 - the setup for SP2
seems to wipe them for some matter.

Let me ask once again: was that a Vista SP1 machine with Preferences
installed/working before and you installed SP2 or was that a clean SP2
install (slipstreamed) DVD-install?

Installed from an untouched ISO of Windows Vista with SP2
integrated/slipstreamed (downloaded from Microsoft).

I used the instructions here

Just replace KB667668 with KB943729 in the example.

I've had the same issue also. Its obviously a bug.

In my case, I had done a fresh install of Vista SP1, but did not install any
updates and installed SP2 straight after.

The installers for GP Preferences will be updated once Vista SP2 gets
RTM'd. If the "hack" (= unpacking the MSU file) works for you, you of
course can stick with that.

Here is how I got around it.

download the CSE from here.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943729

(*Note you will obviously need to modify the commands below if your on
x64*)

Open command prompt and run the following:

mkdir MSU\KB943729\
expand Windows6.0-KB943729-x86.msu -F:* MSU\KB943729\ start /w
%SystemRoot%\system32\pkgmgr.exe /ip
/m:MSU\KB943729\Windows6.0-KB943729-x86.cab

Reboot your computer and CSE should be working fine :)

Thanks for sharing. As I see thise here, your solution pretty much
matches with what Jostein posted

I expect the GP Team to have an updated version of the GPP-CSE by the
time SP2 gets RTM'ed.

Sadly, SP2 RTM has been and gone, and no updated installers for the CSEs.
This means Windows Update and WSUS also doesn't install it.

Frankly, I'm very disappointed. This is the exact same problem that occurred
with Windows XP SP3. For this to occur once was irritating; twice is
shameful. Someone at Microsoft has really dropped the ball on this.

You can load GPP-CSEs into WSUS from Microsoft Catalog, no?

Microsoft released an update to the KB943729 patch for Vista on June 23rd and
updated the Supported Operating Systems listing under System Requirements to
reflect that it would install on Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate
with Service Pack 2 installed, but upon downloading I still get the same
message on both Business and Enterprise systems with Service Pack 2
installed.

I also attempted to install the update using the trick mentioned above and
it worked before they updated the file, but now it does something horrid to
the user side of Group Policy and causes it to time out when attempting to
update.

I would absolutely love a fix for this as I am trying to set up an automated
printer deployment solution using GPO preferences. I agree to the point that
it feels like the ball was dropped on this one.