The RestrictAnonymous value breaks the trust in a mixed-domain environment

When you try to add users or global groups from a trusted Windows NT 4.0 domain with Active Directory Users and Computers on a Windows 2000 domain controller, the following error occurs when you click the trusted domain name in the Look In box of the object picker: If you are doing a NLtest SC_QUERY, you may receive either or all of the following error messages:

This problem occurs because the RestrictAnonymous value is set to level 2 on the Windows 2000 domain controller.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To resolve this problem, set the RestrictAnonymous value to 0 or 1 on the Windows 2000 domain controller:

1. Open Registry Editor, and then navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA
2. Set the following values:
   Value: RestrictAnonymous
   Value Type: REG_DWORD
   Value Data: 0x1 or 0x0(Hex)
3. Restart the domain controller.
4. Break, and then re-establish the trust.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows 2000.

This problem only occurs in an environment where there is a two-way trust between a Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 domain. You should only use the level 2 setting for RestrictAnonymous in a pure Windows 2000 environment.

For more information about RestrictAnonymous in Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: