I was sifting through the explanations here because I got the same error as the OP. While the explanations presented may apply to many cases, I found a very simple solution that might apply to some situations. The directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\vim" belonged to an account with admin rights and used only for admin purposes, but the permissions were set to allow access only by the owner. This is observed from my cygwin bash command line, but the solution might apply even for people not using cygwin. I wanted to specify this detail because the Windows 7 security model is quite complicated, and what is seen from bash might only give a hint to the true cause of the problem. In any case, the solution was to change the access to the aforementioned directory and all child/descendant folders/files. Change it so that everyone has read and execute permission. For security, keep write permission restricted to owner.
Prior to doing the above fix, even the admin owner could not do a vim diff if vim was launched with elevated privileges i.e. right-clicking the vim icon launching as administrator. I have no idea why, because elevated privileges should mean less access problems, but instead I saw the errors in the original post. It might be due to the abomination known as the Windows 7 security model, which creates virtual copies of a directory tree so that what is visible is customized for each user, and indeed, possibly for each privilege level (I don't know, my head spins when I try to comprehend the gyrations they try to do in order to build in security without impeding usage). The custom virtual version of the directory is stored at C:\Users\TheUserOfInterest\AppData\Local\VirtualStore The reason I suspect this is because there should be no reason for the aforementioned directory to be restricted because I'm pretty familiar with the problems that this could cause. It may have been *made* restricted when I deleted the above virtual view of the directory. Welcome to Windows 7. Good attempt at greater security but not without a price. -- -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "vim_use" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
