“The directory name is invalid”

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You’ll have an mmc on the desktop or a shortcut to AD where you RUN AS and get the “The directory name is invalid”.

Here is a fix for the AD shortcut issue

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832434

Right click on the AD shortcut in properties and in the Start In put

%windir%

Fix for the MMC is to give the RUNAS user account permissions to the location of the MMC. If it’s on your desktop, then give permissions there. Not just to the icon, but the whole desktop folder or even the whole profile folder.

The message basically means that RUNAS user doesn’t have permissions to that location. Shit error message but that’s what it means.

2 thoughts on ““The directory name is invalid””

  1. I had this issue where we changed the “run as” on winword.exe to troubleshoot a problem and forgot to change it. When I tried to open a file off the network, it wouldn’t recognize local drives (e.g. H drive or J drive or other mapped drives in the domain). I could open files off the desktop. I resolved it by unchecking the “run as administrator” box on winword.exe and cleared the compatibility box as well. Once I did that, it worked fine. Your explanation (found thanks to internet search) was helpful by pointing to the “run as” issue and you’re also right that the error message is not helpful for troubleshooting.

  2. Thanks for comment. Bothered me for ages, had to ask another IT guy at work who pointed out it was simply a permissions issue relating to where the shortcut is. If you don’t have permissions to that area, it fails which for some odd reason I never worked out until he pointed it out 🙂

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