I am trying to connect to the registry on my W2008R2 server from a W2003 server using elevated permissions as in the SYSTEM account. However I am receiving a access denied error. Any ideas on how to overcome this? Thanks.

The system account likely won't be able to connect to another system's registry. Have you tried with an account that has local administrative permissions on the 2008 R2 server? -- Mike Burr

Both computer must be a member of a Domain, this will not work with workgroups. On the Target Computer place the Source Computer's AD Account (Computer$) in the Local Administators group. Reboot one of the computers to clear any existing connections.

Both computers are part of the same domain, the target computer contains the source computer's AD account. I will reboot both at some stage to clear the connections, but am not too hopeful as these servers have been rebooted before with the mentioned groups populated with the above. I need to be able to connect to the other systems registry using the SYSTEM account, as it is a requirement for SCCM to work correctly. Thanks.

This method will work, unless something is configured outside of the defaults. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680595.aspx Security Best Practices Configuration Manager 2007 does not require that any computer accounts be added to the Domain Admins group. When a computer account requires administrative rights, for example on a remote site server, add the account to the appropriate local group. Do not remove rights and permissions from Local System. Changing the default rights and permissions could prevent the operating system and applications from functioning.

The system account likely won't be able to connect to another system's registry. Have you tried with an account that has local administrative permissions on the 2008 R2 server? -- Mike Burr It seems to be operating system related. I can connect to the remote registry using the SYSTEM account if trying from the same OS (W2008R2 to W2008R2) but not if trying from W2K3R2 to W2008R2. This is causing issues with SCCM as some of the roles need the ability to do this to get them installed and working. Is there nothing configurable to relax this?