FreeFileSync will not start automatically

[Togfather]

Hello.
Running the donation version on windows 11.

I have a shortcut to the .exe file in my user/appdata/roaming/Microsoft/windows/start menu/programs folder, but it does not automatically open when the computer starts up.

Can anyone offer a solution please?

many thanks

Tog :-)

[Zenju]

The correct folder can be found via: shell:startup

[Togfather]

Thank you.

That makes it open at start up, but then I get the following error when I run it:
Cannot open directory "D:\Config.Msi".

ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED: Access is denied. [DirReaderPlus]

This is very strange, as there is no file called Config.Msi in folder D:\, although "show hidden items" is ticked.

I have Googled this error and see that a fix for it is to make it permanently run as administrator, but when I do that, it no longer opens at start up, despite it being listed in the start-up folder.

I have been using FreeFileSync for quite a while now, and this has never happened before.

I can now either have the programme open at start up and throw the error message or fix the error message by setting properties to run as administrator, but not have the programme open at start up.

What I really want is to have FreeFileSync open at start up and run without an error message, like it used to.

Is this possible?

Many thanks

Tog :-)

[xCSxXenon]

Does that error pop up when you start FFS manually, like from the Start Menu?

[Plerry]

Anything you run from your startup folder will run as the user that just logging in, not as Admin.
If you automatically need to run some application as Admin, you can use the Task Scheduler (don't use the Basic Task Wizard!) and then you can define the user credentials for the scheduled task.

[Togfather]

Many thanks for your reply.

As I said, the problem is that when the programme runs at start up, it throws an error, so how can I get it to run automatically at start up without throwing the "Cannot open directory "D:\Config.Msi".

ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED: Access is denied. [DirReaderPlus]" error?

Best wishes.

Tog :-)

[Togfather]

Does that error pop up when you start FFS manually, like from the Start Menu?

Yes, it does, but not when run as administrator.

[LeoW]

I can't see any logical reason why freefile sync would want to access "D:\Config.Msi" when it starts from the regular start menu!
One of the reasons you're getting an error message is that users don't have permission to that hidden system file only administrators do.

If it were me, I would download a copy of Revo uninstaller free and use it to uninstall the free file sync that you have installed right now,reboot and install a clean copy and see if you can get it to launch from the menu without generating an error message if you can do that going forward should be simple.

[Plerry]

> so how can I get it to run automatically at start up without throwing the ... error?

As stated in my reply from above:
If you need to automatically run FFS as an Admin, use the Task Scheduler instead of the startup folder.

But perhaps you need to more carefully consider what needs to be synced (and what not).
Do you really need to sync everything in D:\ from the root of D:\ downward?
Or just one or more specific folders in D:\?
In case of the latter, you can likely define your FFS left-right base location pair(s) one or more levels deeper, and thereby avoid folders with content requiring Admin access.

[Togfather]

Hello.

Ok, it seems that I have not explained the situation clearly, as answers are getting too confusing for my 71 year old brain :-).

I am NOT trying to sync folders that need admin access.

I am trying to sync folders and files that do not require admin access (D is a simple subfolder of drive C), and FreeFileSync has been doing that perfectly for ages, but now suddenly throws an error.

I have uninstalled and re-installed FreeFileSync with Revo, as suggested by LeoW.

FreeFileSync starts when I start my PC.

Running FreeFileSync triggers the following error message:

Cannot open directory "D:\Config.Msi".

ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED: Access is denied. [DirReaderPlus]"

D:/Config.Msi does not exist.

What should I do now?

Best wishes

Tog :-)

[Gianni1962]

To view this system folder you need to untick also "[x] Hide protected operating system files" in Folder Options.

[xCSxXenon]

Your Windows installation is damaged or you are doing something wrong. Are you opening FFS the program or are you 'opening' a saved configuration? How are you trying to open FFS when you open it manually? As another said, FFS does not need any access to that location to open, so the error makes no sense. To me, it sounds like you are trying to open a .ffs_gui or .ffs_batch configuration, not FFS itself, and that configuration is set to access "D:\Config.Msi".

[Togfather]

To view this system folder you need to untick also "[x] Hide protected operating system files" in Folder Options.

Thank you so much Gianni1962.
After doing that I was able to see and delete the Config.Msi folder and now everything works perfectly again.

I am so grateful that all is well at last.

Thanks to all who tried to help, and I apologise if I was not explaining the issue well.

Best wishes.

Tog :-)

[therube]

.
Do you have a D: drive?
Do you have a C: drive?

On what drive is Windows installed?

Do you have a \Config.Msi\ on any drive?
(Normally \Config.Msi\ would be set to Hidden System, so make sure you can actually see it if it exists.)

Run Windows Explorer "as admin" [I suppose that would work?] (better yet, run a real file manager, as Admin), & explorer \Config.Msi\. Assuming \Config.Msi\ exists, it should (theoretically) be empty.

If it is not empty, what is in there?

When you installed FFS, into what directory did you install it?
Is your user account a "normal" user or an Admin level account?

What version of FFS?

Since you have the donation version, if you were to download the ZIP version & unpack that somewhere, can you run that directly without any error messages?

And are you then able to set that up to run on startup without any error messages?

(I see you've resolved your issue.)

[therube]

I was able to see and delete the Config.Msi folder and now everything works perfectly again

Did you happen to notice if there was anything in that directory?

[LeoW]

This is what I have learned about config.msi

What is the Config.MSI Folder and Can I Delete it?

The folder is used by the Windows Installer process during an installation of software. It saves files with the extension of .RBS and .RBF. These are Rollback Script Files used by the installer to uninstall recent changes if an install fails somewhere along the way. The rollback script file (.rbs) is always stored in the Config.msi folder on the disk where the operating system is installed. The .rbf files are stored in the Config.msi folder located on the disk where the program that is being backed up currently resides. These can be two different drives.

Essentially the CONFIG.MSI folder contains backups of files that are being installed or updated during a program installation. Upon a successful completion, this folder and files are deleted automatically. However, sometimes the installer program fails to remove these files. In this case, you may safely delete the CONFIG.MSI folder and files from your hard drive.

Hope this helps!

[Togfather]

I was able to see and delete the Config.Msi folder and now everything works perfectly again

Did you happen to notice if there was anything in that directory?

No, it was empty