Case Study - Object Picker cannot open because no locations from which to choose objects could be found

Situation: the client reports that he receives this error message "Object Picker cannot open because no locations from which to choose objects could be found" when trying to add a new user from an Active Directory domain in the Windows 2000 computer.

Troubleshooting: 1. The user belongs to administrators and Domain Admin groups. So, the permission is not the issue.

2. The computer is not multihomed computer and has correct DNS settings. The computer can access any computers and Internet without any problems.

3. If he uses another computer to do the same thing, it works.

Analysis: the PDC emulator (domain role) performs the following functions:

User account changes and password changes.
SAM directory replication requests.
Domain master browser requests.
Authentication requests.

You must connect to the PDC emulator in the domain to manage a user. Note: There is only one PDC emulator per domain.

Resolution: Open Active Directory Users and Computers and click on the domain, for example, chicagotech.net, and select "Connect to Domain Controller". The “Change to” points to a old DC, for example ms-mvps.chicagotech.net which had been removed from the network one week ago. That is why he receives this error because the computer can’t access the domain controller. Change it to Any Writable Domain Controller which is default settings and he can add the user without problem.

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