Windows – GPO Application Management Woes

So, I am trying to deploy several MSI packages in a GPO policy. All of the installers are on an external file share. Fortunately for me, this file share died and I was put in charge of salvaging what I could. The solution, given the indifference of many around here, was setting up a DFS Consolidation root pointing \\ournewsharesever\sameshare to \\oldservername\sameshare, so old paths could be maintained from an underway backup/transition to a new, more powerful file server. I hope it makes sense up to now.

So, after restoring and configuring everything, it looks good. Well, kind of at least. A lot of computers are having trouble with the MSI packages. I am perplexed because if I copy and paste the paths over RDP and run them interactively, which I was meticulous about keeping identical to avoid asking ServerFault ;-), they will run fine interactively. It is only through GPO Software Deployment this junk keeps failing. I see errors like this all the time now in the System Event Log of the impacted clients (running a relatively fresh Windows 7 image).

Log Name:      System Source:        Application Management Group Policy Date:          8/23/2010 8:28:12 AM Event ID:      101 Task Category: None Level:         Warning Keywords:      Classic User:          SYSTEM Computer:      COMPNAME.fqdn Description: The description for Event ID 101 from source Application Management Group Policy cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

Adobe Acrobat 9.3.3 Pro GPO Name Here 1274

The handle is invalid

Event Xml: <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Management Group Policy" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">101</EventID>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-08-23T12:28:12.000000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>19556</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>COMPNAME.fqdn</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />   </System>   <EventData>
    <Data>Adobe Acrobat 9.3.3 Pro</Data>
    <Data>GPO Name Here</Data>
    <Data>1274</Data>   </EventData> </Event>

This is not the only package with this problem, but a bunch of them. Again, the paths are the same, just with DFS. Permissions have not changed. Because of 1274, I have disabled Logon Optimization as many people on the tubes suggest. Four, five, six reboots later, nothing special has changed and they still do not install. Anyone have a clue before I pull my own hair out?