Error 1606: Could not access network location %APPDATA%

Time to do the regular software updates. Logon to my administrator account and do the necessary. Today was more of a challenge than usual.

The first one was Adobe Reader - the auto update has failed - nothing new there, it often does. I'll downloaded the new version. Firefox doesn't start - no messages - nothing. Same for opera, same for Safari. IE works. I get the new version of Adobe Reader from my Standard User account. There Firefox and everything else works a treat. That's a relief. Back on the Administration account I try to move some files, as I'm planning to delete the account. I can make a 'New Folder' in Public, but renaming does nothing. The command line will create the named directory, but then the drag and drop of files does nothing.

After some very inconclusive web research, I decided to try the spare Administration Account. It's been created, but never used, so it creates a desktop and takes ages. The registry is clean though, and the installations are working.


So, I'll delete the old Administration Account. After all the usual permissions are granted, it just sits there as though I'd not even clicked the button. I try again, the decide to wait for disk activity to cease. You can grow a beard waiting for that. Eventually a message - "Windows cannot delete the Logged on account".

The old Administrator account has gone, but the top level folder is left, under that there is \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player. Well there's a surprise, I've just applied some update from Microsoft to media player - could this be the culprit?

There is a file there - CurrentDatabase_360.wmdb, which I cannot delete, because it is in use by another program. Time for a restart and safe mode.

Safe Mode though doesn't start up cleanly.  The dialogue never completes and I'm left with a '98 style start button in the left hand bottom corner, and a mouse pointer with the circle indicating 'wait for vista'.  Ctrl-Alt-Del, task manager, new task, cmd.exe.  At LAST  I have control of my machine, and can delete the file.  I use the command line 'shutdown /s' to stop the machine.  During that process the proper @SAFE MODE' screen flashes up briefly. The old Administration Account is gone, logged on to the spare I create a new one.  My installs are complete.

I'm assuming that this was registry corruption - it reminded me of a problem in Windows '95 where one user suddenly had control of everybody's desktop.  Whatever changes were done there happened everywhere.

Is it too much to ask that Windows 7 might just WORK?