setup.exe: Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file.

While trying to install a .NET eConnect integration on a client's test server, I ran into this error message when I tried double clicking on setup.exe:

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file."

Neither the setup.exe nor the MSI install file would launch.

Because the error is so generic, it was difficult to know where to look for the cause.

The user was logged into the server as a local Administrator, and the setup.exe was in C:\Temp, so it was difficult to believe that it was a file or directory permission issue. As a test, I tried copying the setup files from the file server to the desktop, but that didn't work either.

After Googling the error for a few minutes, I finally came across this article with the solution.

It seems that Windows Server 2003 has a feature that, under some specific set of circumstances, "blocks" a file that has been copied from another machine. I've copied plenty of files from one machine to another and never run into this issue (and never even knew the "block" feature existed), so I'm not sure what specific situations or conditions cause the file to be blocked.

But, sure enough, when I right clicked on the setup.exe file, at the bottom of the General tab I saw a message indicating that the file was being blocked. I clicked on the Unblock button for both the setup.exe and MSI files, and the install proceeded without issue.