Domain Level GPO error

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Question about GPO's and Windows Server 2003:

After changing some settings with one of our GPO's, I noticed that when I tried to pull up the settings in our Domain Level GPO we get an error under "Internet Explorer Maintenance". The error says:

The file "\\domain controller\sysvol\domain\policies\user\microsoft\ieak\install.ins" is not in a valid format. Details: Length cannot be less than zero. Parameter name: Length.

I tried applying a couple of settings within that GPO and after I did so I ran "gpupdate /force" and then looked to see if those settings got applied. As I expected, nothing was applied. What I changed was some settings for ActiveX within "User Config->Windows Settings->Internet Explorer Maintenace->Security". This does not solve the issue I was having with ActiveX and an application we used called "Rockysoft". When I go into the Security Settings tab in IE7 all I get is greyed out "Custom Level" and slider. I am assuming this error in the domain level GPO has something to do with it.

Has anyone see this type of error before? Could this be a possible corrupt GPO? How would I go about fixing this issue? I included a screenshot of the exact error.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

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Oops, meant to put this in software. An admin can move this if they would like.

Thanks

 

What happens if you replicate the GPO e.g. create a new one with all the same settings except the ones you changed.

Then delink the old GPO and link the new GPO and do a gpudpate?

 

Thanks for the quick response. Will let you know how it goes.

 

I am assuming that they renamed it? I am honestly not sure. We had an old CIO that had no idea what he was doing so now we are trying to clean up his mess on everything. We are sitting on an IP range of 207, it's an absolute mess. Thanks for the reply.

 

Personally speaking I would restore the Default Domain GPO and setup any subsequent GPO's in their own OU's below.

There could well be something thats screwed up in the system.

 

Not sure when it started giving that error, today was the first time I had gotten in there to change anything. All I was trying to accomplish was to enable "Allow unsigned ActiveX" in the Local Intranet settings. After I made this change and it didn't seem to update, I started looking around to see what was going on and that's when I found this error. I hate taking over someone else's work when you don't know what they did. I will try to do a restore of the Default Domain GPO and see if I can basically recreate what we have now.

Thanks for the responses Sparky and Simon. This at least gives me some direction to go with it.