I had this error again. I did the "netsh" procedure as described below and then shutdown and powered on computer. Very slow loading Windows Desktop then received the Group Policy Client error message again. Darn... Did a restart and all is well. Sometimes you just have to restart more than once to fix things.
-- Original post of June 17, 2015 --
Back in April this year, I experienced a recurring problem with my computer and it is still fixed (unless this sentence has just jinxed me). This has to do with the "Failed to connect to a Windows service. Windows couldn't connect to the Group Policy Client service" error.
Well, last Monday afternoon Bob's computer (same make and model as mine, both running Windows 8.1) had this error pop up.
I went and followed the procedure which fixed my problem (see here Video #1) but it did not fix his computer. All of his registry parameters were perfect. I tried restarting his computer several times but still no change.
The next morning, I decided to use the Video #2 option as mentioned in the previous post which is to run netsh.
VIDEO #2) This video by Straker 32 might have a slightly different problem. I was going to try it if the above solution did not solve my problem. Titled: "How to Fix "Failed To Connect To A Windows Service" Windows 8". Warning, it sounds like it was made by a 12-year old but it is short. CLICK HEREIt worked and so easy!
Go to your Windows Start screen (not Desktop) and click the down arrow at the lower left corner to get to your list of Apps. Then scroll to all the way to the right and under the heading Windows System you will see COMMAND PROMPT. Right click on this app and left click on "Run as Administrator". You will then have a window where you can run DOS commands (remember when it was always that way, back in the day?).
You will have the C prompt:
C:\windows\system32>Type:
netshThe C prompt will look like:
(and press your Enter/Return key)
netsh>Then type:
winsock resetAfter it runs successfully, it will tell you to restart your computer...
(and press your Enter/Return key)
(note the space between winsock and reset)
Restart you computer.
This worked. No error message on the desktop... HURRAY! Almost all of the comments on this YouTube video were to say that it fixed their problem. The one that didn't probably did not specify to "run as administrator".
Still doing the happy dance! If this error pops up again on either of our computers, I will try the netsh winsock reset solution first.
Many thanks to "Straker 32" for posting his short & informative fix on YouTube.
I hope this blog post will be helpful to someone else who is in despair.
So it goes...
