Group Policy update blocked when Critical System Protection (CSP) Prevention policy enabled

Products

• Critical System Protection

Issue/Introduction

Execution of gpupdate /force command fails with the error below when CSP Intrusion Prevention is activated.

Windows failed to apply the Group Policy Folders settings. Group Policy Folders settings might have its own log file. Please click on the "More information" link

Windows failed to apply the Group Policy Files settings. Group Policy Files settings might have its own log file. Please click on the "More information" link

Windows failed to apply the Group Policy Shortcuts settings. Group Policy Shortcuts settings might have its own log file. Please click on the "More information" link

Environment

CSP 8.0.x

Windows 10

Cause

Blocked access to the registry location \HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT prevented Group Policy to the updated successfully. 

Resolution

The issue was resolved by whitelisting the blocked access to the registry \HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT. 

This event was only generated when Trivial Logging was enabled in the Intrusion Prevention policy.