“Error 1606. Could not access network location . All users\”

Last week I got an e-mail from a family member who wasn’t able to install a program she purchased a year ago. The software is called “Creating Keepsakes – Scrapbook Designer”. She was getting an error message “Error 1606. Could not access network location . All users\”. She went to the vendor’s Web site looking for solutions but didn’t find any, she also e-mailed them 3 times but never heard back from them. I told her of a solution that worked and I think it’s worth documenting because this error can occur under various circumstances. For example, you may encounter this error if you try to install or uninstall Norton AntiVirus 2003. Sometimes the path and location is given in the error message, which may point to several different paths, such as C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop, or C:\My Documents\My Pictures.

Microsoft’s KB article 315352 mentions that this error occurs if you upgrade from Windows 98 SE or Windows Me to Windows XP, or Windows XP SP1. However, variations of this error are also known to exist when you upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000. Here’s a step-by-step solution that has worked for me.

1. Click on Start, Run and then type REGEDIT.EXE to start the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders.

3. Double-click the Common Administrative Tools Value Name and set the data value to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools.

4. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders.
Notice that this path is different than the path in step 2. This is “Shell Folders”, in step 2 you went to “User Shell Folders”.

5. Double-click the Common Administrative Tools Value name and verify that the Value data is set to the
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools.

6. Close the Registry Editor.

7. Restart your computer.