Error message when you try to compile audiences in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition: "The audience cannot be compiled" (924040)

SYMPTOMS

You try to compile audiences in Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition. When you do this, you receive the following error message on the Manage Audiences page:

The audience cannot be compiled, because the account used to compile audiences does not have the proper rights. Change the rights for this account on the Specify Compilation Schedule page so that it has read and write access to the user profile database.

If you open Scheduled Tasks, you may see that the audience job scheduled task did not run. Additionally, you receive the following error message:

0xffffffff

CAUSE

This issue occurs because the WScript on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition maps to the 64-bit version of Windows Script Host. The SharePoint VBScript files call the SPSSearch.Admin COM object that is registered only in the 32-bit registry hive of Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, update the audience job scheduled task by using the Microsoft Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) version of WScript. To do this, follow these steps:

Open Scheduled Tasks, right-click the audience job scheduled task, and then click Properties.
In the Run box, change the start of the text ("wscript") to %systemroot%\syswow64\wscript.exe, leave the remaining text unchanged, and then click OK.

Note When you run the 32-bit version of Windows Script Host by using %systemroot%\syswow64\wscript.exe, the SharePoint VBScript accesses the 32-bit registry hive of Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition. Therefore, the SPSSearch.Admin COM object can be initialized.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

905854 The prerequisites that are required to install SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2 on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition