Fixing Path/File Error in Email Marketing Director

In Windows Vista, Microsoft added features to the operating system to protect you from yourself, especially when downloading and installing software programs. Many of these safety features were carried over into Windows 7, although they make it somewhat easier to customize.

When attempting to re-start Email Marketing Director in a Windows 7 (or Vista) environment (or later, probably 8 too), you may see the following error:

    Path/File Access Error
    Either the campaign.sto or campaignlists.sto files is locked. Closing the program

In most cases, if you are loading programs as an administrator in your Windows environment, you will have no problem, but if you are logged in as a separate user, you must give yourself permission to run the program. To set permissions, do the following.

• Go to C:\Program Files (x86) and right mouse click on the EmailMarketingDirector folder.
• Select properties and then click on the Security Tab.
• Click the Edit button and select each of the users and ensure allow is checked for all users that you are allowed to edit.
• Afterwards, go to C:\ProgramData* and do the same for the EMD folder there.
  
• Restart EMD and you should be all set.

*The Programdata folder is a hidden folder, you may need to show hidden folders before you can access this folder to change the permissions. To show hidden folders, open your Windows Explorer and click organize, then Folder and Search options. Click on the View tab and find the option to Show Hidden Files Folders and Drives. You can also type C:\ProgramData in the Windows Explorer address bar to access the folder.