Failed to open the Group Policy Object on this computer

I use the Group Policy Editor to configure a lot of settings on Windows 10. Recently, when I tried to open it from the Run prompt or directly from the Control Panel, I received an error stating –The Group Policy object cannot be opened on this computer. You may not have the appropriate rights – unspecified error. If you get the same error, here’s how to quickly fix the problem and regain access to the Group Policy Editor.

Unable to open GPO on this computer

The message was surprising because I hadn’t changed anything that could have caused the error message. When I sailed to C: Windows System32 GroupPolicy, all the policies were intact, but the Group Policy Editor did not work. So here is what I did to resolve the problem. Make sure your user account has administrator privileges.

1. Configure Windows to show hidden files and folders
2. Go to Group Policy folder
3. To select Machine folder and press F2 to rename it
4. Rename Machine to Machine.old
5. It will ask for administrator permission.
6. Click the Continue button.
7. Once the folder is renamed, open the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc at the Run prompt, then pressing the Enter key.
8. The Group Policy Editor will launch without problems.
9. Go back to C: Windows System32 GroupPolicy and you should see a new Machine folder.
10. The changes you make will now be available in this folder.

There is another way to solve this problem.

You can choose to delete all files from the Machine folder instead of renaming it. Windows automatically re-creates the required files when you restart the policy editor.

Lily: The IT policy could not be updated successfully, the processing of the group policy failed.

The reason for the failure to open the GPO error

After browsing the Microsoft and Technet forums, I noticed that some users were reporting the same thing, and one of them shared the corruption of Registry.pol with Event ID 1096. The file stores registry-based policy settings, which include application control policies, administrative templates, and so on. There was a log in the Event Viewer that indicated this corruption. The description stated:

Group policy processing failed. Windows was unable to apply the registry-based policy settings for the LocalGPO GPO. Group Policy settings will not be resolved until this event is resolved. View event details for more information about the file name and path that caused the failure.

It confirms the user report and you can delete the Registry.pol file available in the Machine folder and restart Group Policy.

I hope this helps you resolve the error.

Now read: How to reset all local group policy settings to default in Windows 10.

• Keywords: Errors, group policy