20266 Operation not supported

[The_Doc_Man]

It is not at all unheard-of for an Office or Windows update to reset a registry key. Given the key you name, I'd bet on an Office update, but I don't use the feature implied by that particular key. And if it was something that worked on Tuesday and failed on Wednesday, ... you should be aware that MSFT pushes updates every other Tuesday night. When I was still a working man, my office used to dread alternate Wednesdays because of the chaos from Windows and other updates. You MIGHT go to the Start >> Settings >> Windows Updates panel and look for the Update History to see if you had an Office update Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

If you only had one such update (sadly, unlikely... but possible), you might be able to roll it back. Otherwise, you probably would have to go back and tweak that setting again.

 

[isladogs]

@mellamokb

Just to clarify...
Are you saying that the AllowQueryRemoteTables registry key keeps being removed?
Or do you mean that its value keeps being reset from 1 to 0?

Also, whichever of those you meant, does this follow a Windows Update? Or was there an Office Update?

 

[mellamokb]

Sorry I did not see your reply @isladogs - Yes, the registry key keeps getting forcibly removed. I haven't been able to correlate it obviously with a Windows/Office Update because I haven't kept close enough track. I am working on a .NET code project that heavily relies on IN clause feature for database joins between databases, and I'll notice that randomly on a morning when I go to start testing I am getting the Operation Not Supported error when it was working fine the day before. I would say it has happened 3-4 times this month since first using the Registry Key solution but I apologize I did not track the exact dates. It is wreaking havoc a bit on one of our processes for monthly billing which relies on a specific IN clause query to copy data between two databases in a deployed .NET app on our customer machines, and the fact that after working to get a solid batch script rolled out to our clients to install the registry key that it can be randomly removed is yet another wrench in this debacle.

 

[isladogs]

@mellamokb
Hmm. If I recall correctly, you are on Monthly Enterprise Channel so wouldn't be getting multiple Office updates each month.
That suggests that Windows updates are removing this setting but I'd still only expect that to happen on Patch Tuesday.

Next time it happens, can you please try to determine whether a Windows or Office update was responsible & try to pin down exactly which update was the issue. Thanks

I've just added that registry key again and set it to 1 for now so I can check up on it here also.