Living in a cross-platform world can be frustrating.
I got this error when trying to install IIS (Internet Information Server) on my Windows XP SP2 company laptop.
A quick lookup on Microsoft TechNet revealed the answer, Article ID 894351. Turns out my problem was the the local group policy database on my machine was corrupted. This was apparently collateral damage resulting from having the SP2 (Service Pack 2) update installed.
Repairing the GP database was pretty easy. Here are the steps I took:
- Restart system in Safe Mode.
- Open a command prompt and run
esenutl /p c:\windows\security\database\secedit.sdb - You should get a return that ends with something like “…Integrity Check Successful”. If you do, you’re good.
- Restart Windows into normal mode.
If repairing fails, then you need to follow the instructions in the article that describe how to rebuild the security database. This is a multi-step procedure that needs to be done in Safe Mode, so make sure you print out the article before beginning!