Steps to reproduce, create a GPO and edit it. Open its sysvol folder and create a file in the machine\scripts\startup folder. Name the file with one or more non ASCII characters. Try to deploy this GPO
After approval: 2025-08-12 08:43:30Z, Policy validation failed. Could not find file '\\DC1.CORP.CONTOSO.COM\sysvol\corp.contoso.com\Policies\{72ACFCC9-F74C-4884-82C7-7F930C6CD6FD}\Machine\Scripts\Startup\Filename-with-umlauts-??????.txt'., , Error, 2004, Error,Quest.Avalanche.Exceptions.PolicyValidationException: Policy validation failed. Could not find file '\\DC1.CORP.CONTOSO.COM\sysvol\corp.contoso.com\Policies\{72ACFCC9-F74C-4884-82C7-7F930C6CD6FD}\Machine\Scripts\Startup\Filename-with-umlauts-??????.txt'. at Quest.Avalanche.ClassLibrary.LiveEnvironment.PolicyBase.ValidateContents(Backup backup, String domainName, String policyFolder) The name of the file for this test is "Filename-with-umlauts-ÄÖÜ.txt"
This was confirmed as a defect
Defect ID: 575904 PolicyBase.ValidateContents is reading UTF8 encoded files as ASCII which does not support no-ascii characters.
It will be fixed in a future version or hotfix for GPOAdmin 5.21
