Did a little digging and all I could find referenced something called Combofix, which is an anti-malware/spyware tool.

I asked our network group if we use Combofix here. Yup. Turns out it apparently marks registry keys to be deleted on next reboot and for some reason this is interfering with QC's interaction with QTP.

All I had to do to fix the problem is restart the machine where my AUT is located. I restarted our QC Server too just in case, but you may not need to do that.

Moral of the story is, if your organization uses Combofix, watch for this error and reboot! :)

I found that ComboFix is not necessarily the only thing that can cause this problem. I found another way to fix it here: [http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21497069][1]

>1. Logon to the application server as an administrator
>2. Launch the group policy editor (click ''Start - Run'' then type ''gpedit.msc'')
>3. Navigate ''Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System-> UserProfiles''
>4. Double-click on ''Do not forcefully unload the user registry at user logoff''
>5. Change the setting from ''Not Configured'' to ''Enabled''. TIP: 'DisableForceUnload' is the value added to the registry
>6. Obtain a short period of downtime (no users on the system) and reboot the application server (to ensure that the change has been registered).

[1]: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21497069