Users can't access the desktop and other resources through Quick Access in Windows 10

If you use copyprofile when customizing your Windows 10 profiles, you may encounter a scenario where pinned icons, such as Desktop under Quick Access for Windows 10 will not be accessible and users may encounter an issue similar to the following when attempting to access or save an item to that location.

“Location is not available. C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop is not accessible. Access is denied.”

Microsoft is aware of the issue and is investigating further. To work around this issue, or to fix the issue if user profiles are already deployed and experiencing this behavior, consider implementing any of the following following options depending on your deployment scenario and requirements.

1. Before the image is created- Unpin the "desktop" shortcut from Quick Access prior to sysprep/copyprofile. The "desktop" shortcut under This PC will not be available upon profile creation. All other customizations will be retained.

2. After the image is created and deployed to address new logons- After sysprep (e.g. while in OOBE or logged in), delete the following file from the default profile . This will remove any customizations made to the Quick Access list prior to sysprep/copyprofile.

a. %systemdrive%\users\default\appdata\roaming\microsoft\windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms

3. After the image is created and deployed to address existing logons- Delete the file per-user so it's regenerated the next time Explorer is opened (again, losing any customizations):

a. %appdata%\microsoft\windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms

4. After the image is created and deployed to address existing logons - Have the user unpin and re-pin the Desktop from Quick Access after logon.

For steps 2a and 3a, you can utilize group policy preferences to deploy this to users that might be already experiencing the issue in their environment.

2a: %systemdrive%\users\default\appdata\roaming\microsoft\windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms

3a: %appdata%\microsoft\windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 22, 2015
  Great! Maybe you guys can fix the Windows10-keeps-disconnecting-every-2-minutes-when-installed-in-a-VM-and-administrator-password-is-empty? This bug was introduced more than a year ago.
  
  And by the way, would be good to fix the event-provider permissions as well so it's possible to clear event logs -- i.e. Microsoft-Windows-LiveId/... -- without access denied errors.
  
  Last but not least, the latest Windows upgrade messed with .admx files.. and gpedit.msc complains on start..
  
  Fortunately, EOL of Windows 8.1 is not around the corner...
• Anonymous
  January 28, 2016
  Would be great If you (MS) provide a way to pin elements in Quick Access either by GPO, PowerShell, Script....
  That was something really handy in the good old days of Windows 8.1
• Anonymous
  February 24, 2016
  Good workarounds and definitely can be implemented. Still, Microsoft intends on fixing this, right?Just FYI, there are two other things that we have noticed that are broken with CopyProfile (even if you make no customizations to the profile):1. Internet Explorer freezes on some sites, including CNN.com. This issue is listed on Technet forums.2. HyperV cannot be enabled. It tries to install but ultimately rolls back.Is Microsoft testing CopyProfile? It didn't have these issues on Windows 8.1.
• Anonymous
  July 18, 2016
  Thank you,We deployed a Windows 10 image to 200+ machines and did not notice this problem dufing our testing. Set up a policy to remove this file via GPO and this seems to have resolved the problem.-Chadd
  • Anonymous
    August 18, 2016
    This path doesn't exist anymore in 1607. Where is it now?CheersDon
• Anonymous
  August 01, 2017
  Wow, I just had this problem in windows 10 1703 on a new 2017 imac running bootcamp. I don't even use copyprofile.