Fix: Failed to connect to Windows service

Windows Troubleshooting
121

I have been having a problem with my Acer desktop computer. It give the the message failed to connect with Group policy client every time I restart the computer. I was following Eugene Robertus’s video on how to fix this problem, but mine seems to have a bit more to it I think.

I followed his instructions for the video which shows the problem is with Netsvcs. I followed his video step by step, but in the end still the same issue. Also some other services such as Windows Firewall and Windows defender seem to be affected by this problem as well.

I went to Regedit, then HKEY Local Machine. After that went to Software, Microsoft, Windows NT, Current Version, Svchost, Then we went to Netsvc and created the folder Netsvcs with Authentication, Coinitializeparam, CoinitializeAllowLowBox, setting the parameters to hex 3020, 1 and 1. I restarted my computer, but on restart same issue. I then went back and looked at another video, which said I needed the GPsvcGroup folder along with another multistring file in details box on the right, so I created that again with Authentication Capabilities Hex 3020 and CoinitializeSecurityParam Hex 1. It did not specify for the third folder which we created in Netsvcs, which was CoinitializeAllowLowBox Hex 1, so I did not create this param. Do I need that 3rd Param as well?

Is there something else that might be causing this problem or have I just missed something along the way? I appreciate any assistance you might be able to provide me in correcting this issue as it has been so irritating to see this everyday and not being able to do anything about it.

I am an amatuer as far as computers go, but giving it my best o try to fix this.

Thank you for your help.

122

thanks so much…from someone whose computer skills are non existent I could easily follow the directions and fix the problem…amazing

123

Thank you! Thank you, incredibly helpful, It worked!!! You are amazing, great at what you do, clear, detailed and precise at every little step! God bless you! Thank you for posting it :slight_smile:

124

I’ve done that before, worked only for a few days… hopefully this solution will be more permanent.

125

wow great help
it worked for me

126

Thank you very very much for the solution provided. It was quite successful and very easy to execute. I am checking other relevant problems like no progress in Win Updates downloads and WinDefender not being updated. I guess the problems were related to this bug ! Thanks once again

127

I had this error after I updated windows 7 Ultimate X-64 on an Acer netbook (with 1GB memory).
After downloading the march 20 updates, the laptop was disconnected from Internet, and left

alone to finish the update. No crash.
On the logon screen, after boot-up and the usual (30%-100%) setup, I logged in an admin
account and got that message.
I rebooted, logged back as an admin and the warning was gone. Logging as a standard user was OK (somewhat slow, but what can you do with 1GB SDRAM ;).

128

Thanks for adding your valuable suggestion.

129

I got the “cannot connect to Group Policy Client Service” error and it wouldn’t get fixed even after trying a good number of cleanups, reboots, and user account adds and changes. Cmd could not open in administrator mode, regedit would not open, and I could not open any right-click menu, task manager, or power options (to disable fast-reboot etc).
Finally I put the machine in “High Performance power mode” then physically unplugged the machine, waited for 20s and restarted. Everything was back to normal. Odd, but only this solution worked for me.

130

Can you re-do the steps and make sure you’re following them to bits?

131

I too would like to thank you for this very easy to follow fix, worked a treat

132

Hello kevin. Thankyou for your good explaination but unfortunately after tried both of the method, i still failed to solve this problem. There is another solution for me? I’m using Asus Ultrabook Windows 8.

133

THANK YOUUUU!!! You just saved my uni grades :wink:
So simple and easy to follow yet would never know how to do this in my life, I applaud you and your beautiful mind!!!

134

This fixed it for me, running windows 10 64b. Thanks alot Kevin =)

135

You my friend are a lifesaver! THANK YOU!

136

THANK YOU!!! I followed your very clear steps even though I didn’t understand any of it, and voila! Restarted and everything is back to normal.

137

:slight_smile: Thanks

138

Hi there many thanks for the reply, a normal system restore point will back up the current registry right?

139

If those keys and values dont exist, create them and do a registry back up before creating them.

140

Hi there I get the same problem with Windows 10 pro Group Policy Client Service and it does appear to be related to update, I have enabled system restore and have to conduct one to remove the problem.
My last computer that recently died also had Win 10 pro and had exactly the same fault.
When I try your fix I can find GPSVC OK but not SVCHOST.
I can only navigate to “Current Version” and if I click it there are no folders available only files, could it be that Win 10 pro is different?
Any help would be most appreciated.