Windows Failed to Connect to Group Policy Client

On every boot on a freshly built Windows 7 x64 machine, I encountered a pop up telling me that the connection to the group policy client had failed. On checked the event log, it appeared that the service was timing out.

To fix this I followed the steps below;

1. Open regedit and take a backup of your registry!

2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services. This path should contain gpsvc key. I found that the key contained all the appropriate information so left it alone.

3.  Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SVCHOST. Make sure the keys/values below are included;

• There must be Multi-String value called GPSvcGroup. My PC was missing it. Create a multi-string value named GPSvcGroup and assign it value GPSvc.
• Create a key in SVCHOST and name it GPSvcGroup
• Open the newly-created GPSvcGroup folder and create 2 DWORD values- AuthenticationCapabilities with a value of 0x00003020 (or 12320 in decimal)- CoInitializeSecurityParam with a value of 1

4. Reboot and log back in. The problem should now be resolved.