Windows Vista installer problem :( EDIT: Many other Vista problems!

[Arkaign]

Hey guys, weird problem on a clean install of Vista Home Basic.

I put in my Adobe Acrobat 8 disc, and start the install process. It begins unpacking, etc, until it comes to this error :

Windows Installer : The Temp Folder is on a drive that is full or is inaccessible. Free up space on the drive or verify that you have write permission on the Temp folder.

I only have one 80gb (74.5) partition, and it is the C:\. I have no other drives (flash/etc) that are writable attached to the system (Compaq notebook w/2gb ram, btw). No other software has been installed other than Office 2007.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

I've already tried right-clicking and 'run as administrator' as well

EDIT: More weirdness on this install. When I use windows explorer to browse the drive, there's a shortcut arrow on the 'Documents and Settings' folder, and when I click to browse it, it tells me "C:\Documents and Settings is not accessible. Access is denied"

EDIT 2: Holy Crap! What a nightmare! Clicking on 'My Documents' brings the same message. WTF. Only one user account on this PC, and it's an administrator account.

I'm *really* trying to like Vista, but this is just ridiculous. I didn't change any exotic settings, didn't install any 3rd party apps. Just installed Vista, activated, loaded Office 07, and now I'm getting this crap.

 

[BD2003]

Acrobat 8 doesnt support vista. Get 8.1.

http://www.adobe.com/support/d.../detail.jsp?ftpID=3661

 

[Arkaign]

"This update requires that Acrobat 8 is installed on your system."

WTF do I do now? Pay another couple hundred bucks for a revision of 8? I can't install 8.0

 

[Arkaign]

Ah, found it, working now with 8.0

http://weblogs.asp.net/israeli...reader-8-on-vista.aspx

 

[Arkaign]

In closing, I cleared the Adobe problem with the techniques listed in the link above, and was only able to do so after creating another account and deleting the original one. No matter what I tried, it wouldn't even let me access my own documents folder! Wtf! Anyways, created new account, and all is well for now.

 

[mechBgon]

EDIT: More weirdness on this install. When I use windows explorer to browse the drive, there's a shortcut arrow on the 'Documents and Settings' folder, and when I click to browse it, it tells me "C:\Documents and Settings is not accessible. Access is denied"

EDIT 2: Holy Crap! What a nightmare! Clicking on 'My Documents' brings the same message. WTF. Only one user account on this PC, and it's an administrator account.

Go to C:\Users.

 :light:
:Q

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>EDIT: More weirdness on this install. When I use windows explorer to browse the drive, there's a shortcut arrow on the 'Documents and Settings' folder, and when I click to browse it, it tells me "C:\Documents and Settings is not accessible. Access is denied"

EDIT 2: Holy Crap! What a nightmare! Clicking on 'My Documents' brings the same message. WTF. Only one user account on this PC, and it's an administrator account. </end quote></div>Go to C:\Users.

 :light:
:Q

lol

 

[stash]

Yeah, what's up with the documents and settings stuff? Those directories are super hidden by default, and they have an ACL that denies you access by design.

Adobe Reader has a bug (I think it's still in the latest versions) that requires UAC to be enabled to install correctly.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>EDIT: More weirdness on this install. When I use windows explorer to browse the drive, there's a shortcut arrow on the 'Documents and Settings' folder, and when I click to browse it, it tells me "C:\Documents and Settings is not accessible. Access is denied"

EDIT 2: Holy Crap! What a nightmare! Clicking on 'My Documents' brings the same message. WTF. Only one user account on this PC, and it's an administrator account. </end quote></div>Go to C:\Users.

:light:
:Q

Heh, the weird thing about it was that it wasn't even accessible through C:\Users, or the desktop icon for that profile. Clicking it brought the same 'access is denied' message. Created another user account, and deleted the old one, and all was well. Never had a situation where I couldn't even browse my own documents or downloads before.

 

[nova2]

"when I click to browse it, it tells me "C:\Documents and Settings is not accessible. Access is denied" "

that's because its a dead junction point (it doesn't point to another directory).
there are more scattered around. I'm not sure how those dead junction points can come into play, but it must be some kind of vista backwards compatibility thing.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: nova2
"when I click to browse it, it tells me "C:\Documents and Settings is not accessible. Access is denied" "

that's because its a dead junction point (it doesn't point to another directory).
there are more scattered around. I'm not sure how those dead junction points can come into play, but it must be some kind of vista backwards compatibility thing.

Arkaign, sorry was in Mexico and just saw this. As nova2 said, Documents and Settings is a juncton to \Users. Sounds like the adobe installer is joking on paths with junction points (in an ideal world, it wouldnt be some app compat issues came up, Quicken had some weird issues as well AFAIK).

What is supposed to happen (and for what it's work normally does) is that applications that use the old style paths (those paths are supposed to be read from the registry or returned from special API's but lots of people mistakenly hardcode them into their programs) should get redirected to the new location transparently.

Glad you got it running...

 

[t0mn8r]

Arkaign,
Welcome to the wonderful world of Steve Ballmer!

All jokes aside:
1. Adobe Acrobat: This product (V8) will only install correctly with UAC turned on as documented in the Adobe forums.

This is Adobe's fault for not using a standard installation program.

2. Not all directories are accessible to you the way they were in XP.

I agree: WTF

These are My Documents, not Your Documents.

Almost impossible to back up all of your stuff if you don't have access to them. I have to cheat (using Vista manager) to move all of my directories (Favourites etc.) so that I can back them up.

What a mess!

Vista. Pfeh.

 

[bsobel]

2. Not all directories are accessible to you the way they were in XP.

Again, yes they are, the path has just been moved. Not all older apps deal with junctions correctly (albeit they should)

Almost impossible to back up all of your stuff if you don't have access to them. I have to cheat (using Vista manager) to move all of my directories (Favourites etc.) so that I can back them up.

No need, just use the c:\users\* path instead of c:\Documents and Settings

 

[Smilin]

Why it's done this way..

The reason for the change: "\documents and settings" sucks. it's long, cumbersome, has spaces that require quotes for command line stuff.

The reason for the "documents and settings" link that is left behind: Jerks don't know how to use %userprofile%



What it does:
If you try to browse it you can't. Among other things Listeny permissions are assigned to the everyone group. Regardless of other permissions you can't go browse around here. Meh..go use "Users" instead. It's teh newness and it's easier anyway.

However to maintain backwards compatibility the structure still exists. That way if some dummy has hard coded something to a path in documents and settings it will get redirected to users and continue to work. I'm guessing this will all get yanked out in Vienna (I hope at least).

A good way to see what's happening...
1. Create a readme.txt file in your documents folder.
2. Hit start | run type C:\documents and settings\username\my documents
3. Hit enter and you'll get an error.
4. Now hit start | run and type C:\documents and settings\username\my documents\readme.txt
5. The document pops open.

See? If something like an installer was hard coded to use that folder it would work. Again, you just can't go browse there.


Now all you uber power users out there give this a try. I know, I know it's gonna look like power user blasphemy but try it for a couple days: Hide hidden files and folders; hide protected operating system files. < gasp!!! >. Don't worry it's all still there. Try it though. See how peaceful it is.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: t0mn8r
Almost impossible to back up all of your stuff if you don't have access to them. I have to cheat (using Vista manager) to move all of my directories (Favourites etc.) so that I can back them up.

What a mess!

Vista. Pfeh.

Just clever enough to be dangerous aren't ya?

 

[Arkaign]

Cool info guys! You are a big part of the reason this forum is so good

Was really weird how that first user profile got borked, and interesting to see the reasons behind it all. I guess running old/non-Vista-compliant apps can sometimes be hazardous to the integrity of the OS/user account.

The C:\Documents and Settings being inaccessible makes sense after you learn why, but what was crazy was how I could no longer access C:\users, or the desktop shortcut (Vista equivalent to 'My Documents') that had the documents/downloads/etc. It would display the root contents, but clicking on anything brought the 'access is denied' message. The only fix I could find was creating a new user account and nuking the old one.

Live and learn I guess