To get this one out of the way early, are you running Steam and the game off an internal or external drive?

Originally posted by ReBoot:

To get this one out of the way early, are you running Steam and the game off an internal or external drive?

internal. Also wanted to say it's not just the game that throws this error but steam client too.

Please quite the full error message.

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

"Permissions" might be the proper pointer here. However, here's other possible causes. The support article[support.microsoft.com] which you should consult (for obvious reasons) names a couple of possibilities.

While my first shot would indeed be checking permissions, that's unlikely the culprit if you're getting this ♥♥♥♥ on a new system as well so I bet on background crapware. Let's rule that out (or confirm) first.

Am I understanding right that you get this problem all from Steam itself, without even trying to start a game?

Yes, from Steam itself. Thanks for the link to the article, I will see if it helps.

Originally posted by ebsbashbreaker:

Yes, from Steam itself. Thanks for the link to the article, I will see if it helps.

That's good. Or, well, that still sucks but since that comes from Steam itself, that gives us a troubleshooting opportunity.

Start your system (not Steam) in safe mode. With networking, of course. Then start Steam and do whatever you did to get this error (except starting the game, those tend to not work on safe mode).

Please report results.

Appartently, a recovery key is needed to start safe mode, which I do not beleive I can access, due to the laptop I am using having previously belonged to someone else. Do you have any other ideas or am I doing somethimg wrong? (The article didn't seem to help either)

Originally posted by ebsbashbreaker:

Appartently, a recovery key is needed to start safe mode, which I do not beleive I can access, due to the laptop I am using having previously belonged to someone else. Do you have any other ideas or am I doing somethimg wrong? (The article didn't seem to help either)

You're doing something weird. Or your system's integrator ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you over HARD.

To start Windows in safe mode, you hold Shift while clicking "ReBoot" and it'll get you to a troubleshooting menu.

THIS PARTICULAR article doesn't tell you how to reboot in safe mode because that's not what the article is about. But there's other articles that are about safe mode read those.

I've looked into this and there isn't any point at which to select safe mode at all. Maybe I'm just being stupid but its not working and I don't want to nearly lock myself out of my laptop again. Any other ideas?

Originally posted by ebsbashbreaker:

I've looked into this and there isn't any point at which to select safe mode at all. Maybe I'm just being stupid but its not working and I don't want to nearly lock myself out of my laptop again. Any other ideas?

You aren't locking yourself out. Where did you get when you held Shift while rebooting?

... also, you can look up articles on safe mode. Just because the article I gave you earlier doesn't mention any safe modes, that doesn't mean there's no articles specifically on safe mode. Look, if you're not big into research, tell and I'll help you out on that front.

This sounds very worrisome.

Questions:
1. When you got this laptop, did it came with bios lock that prevents you from having access? If yes, did you ensure have get password from the person that you got this laptop from?

2. Did you do windows setup, or was this all done for you by someone, and not by the manufacturer? If yes, there chance that person mess with windows settings, such as UAC, or if they put third party app that messing with permissions that something you need to remove.

3. Have you tried verify game files? If no, right click on game from steam client, go to properties, and verify game files, and wait until finished then test.

What you could do on steam is library repair, go to steam settings, click on storage, select the partition the game is on that having the issue, there will be three line/dot button click on that choose repair, and after it finished, test.

I looked at a few articles. When I did the shift reboot, it brought me to the blue screen where I did troubleshoot>advanced options>startup settings>restart. Then, after the restart, it asked me to put in a recovery key. By pressing skip/continue a few times, I could press continue to windows 11 without entering the key. I retried it and pressed f5 and 5 on the screen where it showed what I could do with the startup settings (before pressing restart) and pressing them during the screen after. No clue.
The main thing I don't understand was why steam was working last night but not this morning, when I hadn't done anything with it. I think that might be the key to solving this issue, but I have no idea what to do.

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

This sounds very worrisome.

Questions:
1. When you got this laptop, did it came with bios lock that prevents you from having access? If yes, did you ensure have get password from the person that you got this laptop from?

2. Did you do windows setup, or was this all done for you by someone, and not by the manufacturer? If yes, there chance that person mess with windows settings, such as UAC, or if they put third party app that messing with permissions that something you need to remove.

3. Have you tried verify game files? If no, right click on game from steam client, go to properties, and verify game files, and wait until finished then test.

What you could do on steam is library repair, go to steam settings, click on storage, select the partition the game is on that having the issue, there will be three line/dot button click on that choose repair, and after it finished, test.

1: I have got the password
2: I got everything up to date with the help of a trusted friend before installing steam. The laptop has not been used between steam working and steam not working
3: I do not have access to steam client, It is crashing alongside the game

Update: somtimes it seems to start opening normally (saying that steam is updating) and then yields silently.