When I try to run applications on my domain controller, I get error message, "The service cannot access control messages at this time."

Question

My domain controller is Windows Services 2008 R2.  I get this error message  when trying to open Active Directory, Group Policy, services, etc.  We had this problem previously.  Rebooted the server and it worked for awhile, but the problem
has reoccurred.

Answer 1

I would agree with others. Installing recent updates might solve the issue. Also, checking the errors in event viewer might help. 
Have you tried to reboot the server? If no, you can start with that.
If none of the propositions helped, you can consider doing the following if you have at least one additional DC/DNS/GC server:
Run netdom query fsmo to identify the FSMO roles that the faulty DC is holding
Transfer FSMO roles that the faulty DC is holding to another healthy DC
Demote the faulty DC (If you are unable to do it, you can consider running
dcpromo /forceremoval and running a metadata cleanup)
Re-install the OS of the faulty DC and install the recent updates
Promote the re-installed server as a DC/DNS/GC server
Of course, you need to consider taking system state backups before proceeding.
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