Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file - windows

Whenever I try to launch Visual Studio Code I get the Error "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
I have tried to check the permissions on the file but it says I do not have high enough permissions. I am on a administrator account and I have tried running it as admin too.
It does this every time I close it and everytime I have to uninstall it then reinstall it to fix it.

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Windows: XAMPP install folder ini file permission error, Access denied upon configuration save

After installing XAMPP to Windows 10 (all default/recommended installation attributes), I now have an issue changing its configuration after opening it.
Error: Cannot create file "C:\xampp\xampp-control.ini".
Access is denied
Clicking Save to a change in Configuration of Control Panel:
This "Configuration of Control Panel" box opens after clicking the "Config" button at the top right of the running XAMPP app:
I've tried a suggestion to run the XAMPP app with Administrator (elevated) access… but that seems like a major security issue, considering I don't know exactly what XAMPP would or could do with my files that require that permission, whether intended by the people who run XAMPP or not.
I've tried re-installing to another folder, like to C:\Users\Me, or a sub-folder like Documents or a custom one, but I just got different permissions issues that I struggled to figure out.
If you know a solution that worked for you, that avoided running XAMPP with Admin privileges, please let me know. I've gone through a handful of seemingly-related questions here but they seem to be related to MySQL/PHP questions and not Windows file system permissions.
I found a solution after noticing that the file already existed from apparently a past workaround I tried with running XAMPP as Admin... based on the permissions of the file being different than its parent folder. I discovered this by right-clicking the xampp folder or the xampp-control.ini file then selecting Properties and clicking the Security tab, then clicking into each attached user account's permissions.
So, my C:\xampp folder has these permissions: for Admin, basically full access; for my user account, Read, Execute, and Write.
The xampp-control.ini file has only Admin permissions; my user account is not attached to it.
Adding my user account to the xampp-control.ini file's Security, and adding Write permission then allowed XAMPP's config panel to save my changes.
Note that I typed my username into the "Enter the object names to select" box, then clicked Check Names; this auto-populated my username reference (?), though I'm not sure how it would work if it finds multiple results. Then I could click OK to get back to the Permissions box to add "Modify" and "Write" for it. I'm completely OK giving my user account permission to modify and write to this file through the XAMPP app.
Now, that fixes that file for that scenario; now I'm wondering if there will be other permissions issues with other files, because I noticed some other files (that I checked randomly) don't all share the same permissions for my user account!
Maybe I should have instead modified the xampp folder's permissions recursively to give my user account Write and/or Modify access (I'm not sure of the difference, Windows permissions seem far more complicated to understand and use than Linux's and Mac's do).
I think the file permissions were all set by XAMPP during install; I don't know yet that expanding permissions on certain files will not create new problems...
I found a solution after noticing that error, here is my solution
go to xampp installation folder on the c drive
Xampp Destination
then find xammp control panel.exe
Xampp Control Panel
then right click and go to properties(or press ALT+ENTER)
Click Properties
then go to compatibility and enable Run this program as an administrator
Compatibility tab
Your Problem is now fixed

Preventing Chrome Extension Uninstallation?

My company has Chrome with our custom extension running on windows machines.
Our goal is to launch chrome locally on our machines with our extension running at all times. Our users are constantly looking to uninstall our extension.
Our current approach is to utilize the ExtensionInstallForceList registry key. This sort of works:
Right now, one can still click into C:\WM_0.0 and delete the folder. Once the folder is deleted, this extension is gone.
So we tried the following:
Create a windows account "Client"
Assign "Client" to "Client Group"
Change the permission C:\WM_0.0 to Deny Write
Log out and login to the machine again as Client.
Once I login to my windows machine as Client, I can no longer load my extension:
I tried to change the folder's permission to Full Control for both Users and Client Group but I am still seeing this error in Chrome.
1. How can I load this extension successfully given my current set of circumstances?
2. Is there a better way to do this?

BGInfo error occurred opening the Default Desktop registry key

Running the very nice BGInfo tool to uniquely identify various computers. However, in trying to run on Windows 2008 Server R2, I am getting following error:
"An error occured opening the Default Desktop registry key. Please ensure the current user has rights to change the Logon Desktop settings: Access is denied."
The program is started via a shortcut placed in "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup", and that shortcut is specifying a .BGI configuration file (versus reading settings from the Registry). Thoughts on why the error happens for user other than the Administrator?
On a more in-depth level, I am curious if anyone knows why BGInfo must open the "default desktop registry key" and what it is updating in the "logon desktop settings" (phrase in quotes taken from the original error message)?
BGInfo needs to update the registry to set a default login desktop for all RDP users.
You need to run BGInfo with elevated privileges initially. That can be done as described by creed929 or by right-clicking on bginfo.exe and running as administrator. Once the settings are saved, subsequent user logins will not need the elevated privilege to see the BGInfo background.
From an administrator account. I was able to right click on bginfo.exe. Go to Compatibility tab and check the Run this program as an administrator. This seemed to then allow me to apply the settings without the Default Desktop registry key error.

Windows 7 file access permission question

I installed my application in Windows 7 and as part of the installation, it installs some text files. Now, if I open the text file in notepad and try to save it, I get an "Access denied" error. I'm logged in as administrator on the machine and the file is not marked read only and security permissions seem to be fine.
However, I could delete or rename the file without any problem and I could create a new file with the same name/location using notepad and the save works fine.
I understand it has something to do with UAC. I'm wondering what UAC does in order to block access to the file. Our application is not installed in Program files folder as I believe UAC restrict any changes to files in Program Files folder
Can anyone throw light on what is going on.
regards
G
With UAC, just because you're logged in as a user with administrator privileges does not mean a program actually runs with them. The program has to either request privilege elevation (which gives the "Do you want to allow this program to _____" UAC pop-up) or explicitly be run as administrator (right-click on the program/shortcut and choose Run as Administrator).
By default most areas of the drive outside of the standard "user files" (a.k.a. My Documents & co.) are restricted to administrator-only access, but the folder permissions can be changed to add access for a particular user if desired.
You will find that saving files almost anywhere except the "my documents" area for the user will be restricted, this includes saving to other drives on the system etc.
If you check the permissions for the directory you are trying to write to, all you have to do is expressely give the user permission. Otherwise only the admins have permission, which requires UAC approval from the user to get the admin token.
You normally get "Access Denied" error when the file is in use. UAC could not be an issue here. Check out if the file is in use by anyother process.
You can use tools like Process Explorer from sysinternals to do that.
You have to right click the file and select properties. THen open the security tab and you can see different accounts with differet privelages. Click USERS and it should highlight. The box under it should have a bunch of check marks that indicate what this user can do. Click Full Control. Apply and Okay. Then you can save!!!

open file dialog not working in vista and 2008 envir

i am using Vista . I designed MSi file through Visual Studio 2008 Setup and deployment project in which I added one custom action. In the custom action, I am opening OpenFile dialog. This Open File dialog is not showing mapped drive or network locations. so how can i make the open file dialog to mapthe network drives.
This is a known problem with Vista User Account Control. When your installation program is started, the non-admin session of the user is elevated to an admin session. The problem is: Network drives mapped in the non-admin session of the user do not automatically carry over to the admin session.
Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about it. (You can start an elevated command prompt prior to starting your setup project and manually net use the drive letters there, but I guess that's not something you can expect your customers to do.)
Related question: Preserve mapped drive letter information during UAC elevation

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