No, I have not run Windows update since last month’s bug patch Tuesday and this month’s is still three days away. I’ve run CD hourly since the last Windows update. I did install the Windows update the month before, before they yanked that because of problems. I didn’t see any of the problems some were seeing and the uninstall instructions were complicated enough that I decided to leave it. I wasn’t able to find out whether last month’s update repaired the previous month or not.
It may or may not be related, but I did run CCleaner to flush old files prior to this showing up. Some have reported problems with version 4.18 I think, but I’m still sitting at 4.17. I’ve run CCleaner repeatedly in the past and have never seen this problem with CD in the last year. I’m also not sure that CCleaner even incorporates checks for CD.
I also ran Secunia to check for out of date files and it found zero files that needed updating last night before I had this problem. I believe the last updates I did were the Adobe mess middle of last month.
I did get one other bit of advice from elsewhere, “Nobody knows, Nobody cares, UNIVERSAL Windows response: Reboot. Did it fix it? No? Then uninstall, reinstall and move on.”
But before I do that. I did some Google searching for “Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.” in quotes (which doesn’t include the target file or device name, unfortunately, I wish it did).
One suggested that perhaps your AV thinks some file is a threat. See if your AV has it blocked. I searched through the Symantec menus and logs and I don’t think this is the case. I also searched through the threat history to see if any report matched my trying to start CD and again, no match. I even repeatedly tried to start CD while watching and refreshing the AV history. No hits. So I think that might make this a less likely explanation. I also checked Norton File Insight and all files appear to be rated good or better.
One suggested some permission might have been turned off. So I used Windows Explorer to walk down the path and check read and execute permissions of everything down and including all the files in the Dragon folder, for System, Admin and user. All seemed identical and allowed user to read and execute. So if it is a permission then it is outside the CD tree.
One suggested trying to boot in safe mode and see if the problem goes away. I rebooted into Safe mode With networking and as user was able to start and use CD as an ordinary user. That helps narrow this down a little bit, but not in a way an ordinary user can determine exactly where the problem is. BTW: running CD 33.1.0.0. Always starting and running Incognito.
I have for the last year or two been running Chrome along side CD without problems and Windows doesn’t report the same problem starting Chrome.
Since the other person seeing this is also reporting this when logged in as admin that seems different from what I’m seeing. As admin I have no problem, but “run as admin” and user consistently fail. I’ll certainly log in as admin and export all my configuration so I can have that if I end up with the uninstall/install.
I’ve tried looking through the event logs to see if I can get more information. Unfortunately every software problem I’ve had never leaves anything in the event logs.
I’m still looking for a way to identify exactly which file or device is causing the problem.
So, cautiously and carefully try each of the things I’ve tried and report back. I would NOT start installing anything, that seems as likely to add problems as it does to fix anything.
And thank you and anyone else for just thinking out loud, or even quietly mumbling over in the corner, just as long as I can make out what you are saying and aren’t afraid it might cause more problems than it fixes.