cannot connect to group policy client services

[stuck]

This error does not seem to be a problem if your account is an admin account. It has appeared on and off for years when my mother's Win 8.1 laptop boots up.

Today I discovered that Win 8.1 has the infamous 'fast startup' feature. I've disabled it now and having done so, for the first time in quite a while this error did not appear when the machine booted.

Time will tell if this was a coincidence or an actual fix for the error.

Ken

[HansV]

It might well be the fix needed. Fast Startup causes nothing but troubles; I don't know what the developers had been smoking when they decided to make it default.

[stuck]

The error didn't appear this morning either so perhaps it has helped.

Ken

[HansV]

[JoeP]

Whenever a strange problem occurs on an 8.1 or 10 machine, the first thing I have the user do is disable Fast Startup. It is notorious for causing weird happenings.