UNC Path doesn't work, mapped drive does, powershell does...

[mvbighead]

Well, it wasn't the key that was causing the problem directly. It was a permissions change to that folder of the registry. When the policies were built for the new environment, the inheritance option wasn't selected and thus, all permissions were stripped from that path. Windows then couldn't read the keys, and Windows Explorer broke. Once the permissions are corrected and the key is properly modified, it works just as we want it to.

CASE CLOSED.