windows - Suspicious Group Policy Behaviour

I am running Windows 8.1 x64.

I should start by stating that I am not part of a domain and that computer is only used by myself.

I have two accounts on the machine. My standard user account which is pretty much all I use, and an Admin account that I have in an attempt to make sure software does not install without my approval and to add extra security and troubleshooting capabilities.

Twice recently when I have gone to log in to my standard user account I have been given then error

Windows couldn't connect to the group policy client service

I havent been able to access the user account but have been able to login through my Admin account. I have searched online and found various resources in attempting to fix the issue. So far I have:

• Checked to see if Group Policy Services is running


• Launched Regedit and checked that the keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES are correct and contain the "gpsvc" folder


• I have also checked other local machine registry entries as per online instruction such as netsvc

After following the instructions like https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-us/86ff5743-c0f6-4731-a6c2-ae08686e70e8/windows-could-not-connect-to-the-group-policy-client-service?forum=winserverGP this link details I did fix the error.

I am aware that this issue is often caused by problems during windows update. I am not aware that I have had any as such, but the last update did cause the laptop to hang on shutdown for quite a while but there was no error on startup, I suspect something is corrupt.

Is there a way to check and to prevent this issue from persisting.