Well – this issue started when a client asked me to look at some xpage development queries. They had provided a virtual machine to me in the past with the Designer and Notes apps set up for me to access their various apps so when I wanted to start to investigate their issues I didn’t think that there would be an issue firing up designer. However what I got was “Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file” when clicking on the link. I had an issue before where the .lnk file association had gotten corrupt and wouldn’t launch apps but was able to rule that out.
I could access the files in their directory through windows explorer and check the security and permissions on the folder – nothing odd there. So knowing that something was blocking access – but using windows to provide the “error message” I looked at the applications on the virtual machine and found Sophos antivirus. Having used it extensively the first thing that came to mind were controlled applications i,e ones blocked by sophos group policies and lo and behold a raft of apps are listed including eclipse and the notes client.
A quick call to the client identified that the vm had previous been in a less restrictive Sophos policy group but had been moved for testing purposes to a more oppressive one. A quick policy change and reboot later and the Designer and notes apps sprang into life.