Unhandled exception with GPPE on Windows 7 and 2008 R2

[ruddj]

We are experiencing problems with GPPE Shortcuts and Printers in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.
It occurs for any preference item that has Item-Level Targeting and then has a Security Group Item for the Computer account.
We have a restriction to only create shortcuts and printers on certain machines controlled by group membership of computer account.

Event Log generates a Warning and an Error:
Warning:
The user 'Outlook 2007' preference item in the 'U Shortcuts Staff {783F3CD2-1B5B-4782-9586-B121A3727083}' Group Policy object did not apply because its targeting item failed with error code '0x86012004 The client-side extension caught the unhandled exception 'filter expand' inside: 'Access violation (0xc0000005) occurred at 0xf05705a3; the memory at 0xffffffff could not be read.'%100790275' This error was suppressed.

Error:
The client-side extension caught the unhandled exception 'filter expand' inside: 'Access violation (0xc0000005) occurred at 0xf05705a3; the memory at 0xffffffff could not be read.' See trace file for more details.

Trace just shows:
2009-09-24 12:48:14.711 [pid=0x328,tid=0x7cc] Failed filter [FilterGroup]. [ hr = 0x86012004 "The client-side extension caught the unhandled exception 'filter expand' inside: 'Access violation (0xc0000005) occurred at 0xe57305a3; the memory at 0xffffffff could not be read.'%100790275" ]


We have observed this happening for Shortcut and Printer preference items on both Windows 7 RTM and Server 2008 R2 RTM. I have searched for discussions on this problem and can only find mention when using AGPM which we do not use.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or can replicate it on there system?

[tbrobinson]

I have also experienced the error. It seems to be a problem with item level targing with group policy files or shortcuts preferences.

This site also talks about it, but I have been unable to get any hotfix.
Unhandled exception with Group Policy Prefences on Windows 7


Help!

[ruddj]

The mentioned link now has a hot fix to fix the problem.

FIX: You cannot apply Group Policy settings on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 when security group filters are used in Group Policy preference settings
Consider the following scenario:

1. You configure Group Policy preference settings in a Group Policy object.
2. You use a security group filter in these Group Policy preference settings. This filter checks whether the current computer belongs to a security group that is not empty.
3. This Group Policy object applies to a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. This computer does not belong to the security group that is specified in the security group filter.

In this scenario, the Group Policy applying process stops, and Group Policy preference settings and other Group Policy settings cannot be applied.