Knowledge Base

Error Attempting to Save System Policy File

Article ID: 167900

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q167900

SYMPTOMS

When you use System Policy Editor and attempt to save a policy file on a computer running Windows NT, you may receive the following error message:

An error occurred writing the registry. The file cannot be saved.

CAUSE

To save a policy file using System Policy Editor on a computer running Windows NT, you must be a member of the administrators group. The reason for this limitation is that, even when you are only saving a .pol file to the local system, you need to access registry settings to complete the operation.

MORE INFORMATION

The specified policy file will be saved to the system. The size of the file will be 0 KB. If you attempt to open this file you receive an error message similar to the following:

Unable to open c:\ntconfig.pol:
A required privilege is not held by the client.

When you try the same procedure using an administrator-equivalent account you will receive an error message similar to the following:

Unable to open c:\ntconfig.pol:
The configuration registry database is corrupt.

Additional query words: system policy editor save as rights poledit

Keywords: kbenv kbnetwork kbother kbprb KB167900