Installation Program Requires Access to 'My Documents' or 'My Favorites'-Folder

Issue Details

I am trying to install NI Software on my PC, but the installation cannot be performed. I receive an error message that states:
This installer needs access to "My Documents". However, this location "Z\:" is not available. Ensure that this directory exists and is available and run the installer again.

Some of the Windows 'My'-folders like My Documents or My Favorites are located on a Network-drive and I can easily access these directories from my PC. How can I install my NI Software in this case?

Solution

The Microsoft-Installer (MSI) which is used while installing NI Software automatically tries to access these directories. If the 'My'-folders are located on a Network-drive the MSI cannot find these folders in the default directory on your PC and the installation is aborted. However the installation could be performed by a system administrator with full administrator rights.
Otherwise you could change the registry entry on your system, that the installer uses for the corresponding 'My'-folder on the local PC. In order to change the registry entry perform the following steps:

1. Open the registry-editor by pressing Windows+R and typing regedit into the dialog window. Then the registry editor should open.
2. Search in the left tree-style list for HKEY_USERS and expand the list by clicking on the arrow.
3. Expand the list of the entry that looks similar to S-1-5-21-...-..
   
4. Search for the entry Microsoft and in this folder the entry Windows.
5. Click on the entry CurrentVersion and search the entry Explorer in the expanded tree.
6. Click on the entry User Shell Folders and you should see a window that looks like this (the exact view may look different, depending which folders are located on the network drive):
   
7. Right-click on the name of the corresponding entry (which is required by the installer) and choose Change from the context menu.
8. A dialog window appears and you can change the value from Z:\ to %USERPROFILE%\. Click OK and re-run the installer.
9. The installation should now proceed without the previous error message.

If this does not solve the issue, the better solution is to let the software install by your IT-administrator.

Additional Information

Please write down the previous values of the entries in the registry in order to reset it easily in any case of unpredicted results.

Simply choosing execute as administrator in the context menu of the installer does not solve this issue in most cases. Your IT-administrator has to log-in with his profile on you PC.