Global Secure Access – Forwarding Policy Not Applying / Web Filtering via Secure Web Gateway Not Working

Question

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to enable web filtering on a Windows 11 device using Microsoft Global Secure Access and the Secure Web Gateway (SWG). I’ve installed the Global Secure Access Client, and most Health Check diagnostics pass, except for this message:

“Forwarding policy doesn’t exist in registry.”

I created a traffic forwarding policy in the Microsoft Entra admin center (under Global Secure Access > Traffic forwarding) and assigned it to the appropriate user/device group. However, the policy doesn’t seem to be applying to the device — and web filtering isn’t working either.

Has anyone encountered this issue? How can I:

Ensure the forwarding policy is properly applied and reflected in the client registry?

Enable Secure Web Gateway web filtering successfully on a client device?

Any tips or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hello @Henry,

Based on your issue description, I understand that you are trying to enable web filtering on a Windows 11 device using Microsoft Global Secure Access and the Secure Web Gateway (SWG). You have installed the Global Secure Access Client, and most Health Check diagnostics pass, except for this message:

“Forwarding policy doesn’t exist in registry.”

Based on the above error message what you are seeing in the Advanced Diagnostics Health Check tab, please follow the below steps to check whether the following registry key is existing or not.

Forwarding profile registry exists

This test verifies that the following registry key exists: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Global Secure Access Client\ForwardingProfile

If the registry key doesn't exist, try to force forwarding policy retrieval:

1. Delete the Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Global Secure Access Client\ForwardingProfileTimestamp registry key, if it exists.
2. Restart the service, Global Secure Access Policy Retriever Service.
3. Check if the two registry keys are created.
4. If not, look for errors in the Event Viewer.

Reference document: Troubleshoot the Global Secure Access client: Health check - Global Secure Access

I hope this above information provided is helpful. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

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