Fix System Error 5 Has Occurred Problem

The following error message may be displayed on your Windows XP computer when you try to access a drive mapped to a Windows Vista computer.

System error 5 has occurred.
Access is denied.

This error message is displayed when all of the following conditions are true:

  • Both Windows XP and Windows Vista computers are members of a workgroup.
  • Full Control shared permission is NOT granted to the Everyone group.
  • Full Control shared permission is granted to the Administrator group.

Cause of the error

This error message is displayed because the Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC) does not grant administrative rights to local users automatically. This applies even if the local users are members of the Administrative group.

Resolution Method

To resolve this issue, you can work around the problem by changing the value of the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy registry key on the Windows Vista PC to ensure that full credentials are passed between Windows Vista and Windows XP.

  1. Open Start menu and then type regedit in the Start Search box.
  2. In the Programs list, select regedit.exe to open the Registry Editor window.
  3. If prompted, supply the administrator password to continue or select the Continue button to confirm your decision.
  4. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following registry key:
  5. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

  6. If the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy entry is not in this registry key, then perform the following steps to add it and set its value:
    1. Open the Edit menu, point to New, and then select the DWORD Value command.
    2. Type LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and then click OK.
    3. Next, right-click on the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy key you just added and then select Modify.
    4. Type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
    5. Exit the Registry Editor window and restart your Windows Vista computer.

You should now be able to access your mapped drive on this Vista computer from your Windows XP PC.

Quite often system errors occur when the registry of your Windows computer is damaged or your system is infected with a virus or a spyware program. These problems may not only generate several errors, but in more severe conditions render your system useless. To prevent this situation, you must regularly perform the following two tasks:

  • Clean your registry with the help of reliable registry cleaner tool such as RegServe.
  • Perform full system scans using reliable antivirus and antispyware tools such as STOPzilla Antivirus and Spyware Cease.
  • Clean your hard disk with the help of the Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter tools.