The Active Directory Administrative Center (dsac.exe) offers a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for many of the features added to Active Directory in recent years, like Dynamic Access Control, Authentication Policies and Authentication Policy Silos. Unfortunately, last year, a couple of bugs were found. Luckily, they got squashed.

The situation

The Active Directory Administrative Center (dsac.exe) can be installed on Windows Server through the Add Roles and Features wizard. It can also be installed on domain-joined Windows devices through the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT).

The issue

When you use the Active Directory Administrative Center (dsac.exe) to manage Active Directory remotely from a Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2-based device, the console crashes when you use the Global Search.

Additionally, when you add some navigational nodes in the left navigation pane, these disappear when you close and reopen the console, or when you use the Change Domain Controller function.

This issue occurs because the system does not handle the NULL validation correctly.

The solution

To resolve this issue, install the January 2014 update Rollup on the device used to manage Active Directory remotely: 2911106 Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2 update rollup: January 2014

Concluding

Install the January 2014 update rollup on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2-based devices that you want to use to manage Active Directory remotely, using the Active Directory Administrative Center (dsac.exe)

Related blogposts

Advances in Active Directory since Windows Server 2003  
New features in AD DS in Windows Server 2012 R2, Part 3: Authentication Policies and Authentication Policy Silos 
New features in AD DS in Windows Server 2012, Part 20: Dynamic Access Control  
New features in AD DS in Windows Server 2012, Part 7: Fine-grained Password Pol GUI
New features in AD DS in Windows Server 2012, Part 6: Recycle Bin GUI 
New features in AD DS in Windows Server 2012, Part 5: PowerShell History Viewer 
The case of… display issues (garbled or missing text) in Active Directory Administrative Center 

Related KnowledgeBase articles

2912225 ADAC crashes when you try to use the global search in Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 
2911106 Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2 update rollup: January 2014