If you recently made some changes in your Windows 10 computer using the Group Policy Editor but they were not reflected and you got errors instead, it could be that your Windows computer wasn’t able to read the Group Policy file (registry.pol). To resolve this kind of issue, you have to repair the potentially corrupted Group Policy using the options given in this post.
.As you know, Group Policy is a feature in the Microsoft Windows Active Directory which allows an admin to make changes in the features on Windows PCs that are on the network. So if the modifications you just made weren’t successfully applied, then there could be something wrong with the registry.pol file on the client or it could also be that the Group Policy folder is missing.
To fix this issue in the Group Policy, you need to refer to the given suggestions below and make sure that you have admin privileges as you execute them.
Option 1 – Try to delete or recreate the missing registry.pol file
The entire settings of the Group Policy are stored in the registry.pol file so if it went missing, all the changes you make will not be reflected. The good thing is that you can recreate it but if the file exists and is corrupted, you need to delete it first before you recreate it.
- First, go to the C:/Windows/System32/GroupPolicy/Machine location.
- And from there, check if the registry.pol file exists or not. If it’s there, just delete it permanently by tapping the Shift + Delete keys.
- Now it’s time to recreate the file. Just open Windows PowerShell with admin privileges by tapping Win + X + A keys.
- After opening PowerShell, type this command: gpupdate /force
- The command you entered will recreate the registry.pol file and will refresh the Group Policy. Restart your computer.
Option 2 – Try recreating the secedit.sdb file
The security settings of Group Policy are stored in the secedit.sdb file so if you made some changes to security and they weren’t reflected, you can try to delete and recreate the secedit.sdb file instead of deleting the Group Policy file. All you have to do is navigate to the C:/WINDOWS/security/Database folder and look for the secedit.sdb file and rename it or move it to another folder. After that, restart your computer. Once your computer has restarted, the secedit.sdb file will be created again.
Option 3 – Try to reset the Group Policy to default
You can also try to reset the Group Policy back to its default state. There are several ways you can do that. You can either use the gpupdate or the secedit command in the Windows PowerShell to do that. Resetting the Group Policy will resolve any issues that could be caused by its current settings.
Option 4 – Try to perform System Restore
System Restore can also help resolve the Group Policy issue. It could be that prior to the issue, you’ve made some changes in the system that might have affected the Group Policy. To undo these changes, perform System Restore.
- First, tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
- After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
- Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
- After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed or not.
Option 5 – Use the DISM tool
You can also try running the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management or DISM tool. This tool will repair the Windows System Image as well as the Windows Component Store in your Windows 10 computer. So if there are any missing or corrupted folders and files, the DISM tool can restore and repair them. As a result, any system consistencies and corruptions will be fixed. To run this tool, follow these steps:
- Tap the Win + X keys and click on the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option.
- After that, input each one of the commands listed below sequentially to execute them:
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- Once you’ve executed the commands given above, restart your computer.