Over the last few months I've received the following error message when trying to execute, well, executables stored on my fileserver:
"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
As the message suggests, I thought it was to do with permissions, so began trying to solve it by amending permissions on the fileserver, the active directory domain server and the mailserver that this error message was appearing on. I tried everything, from logging on as different active directory users, leaving/joining the domain and re-creating the shares/permissions too. The thing that completely confused my testing was that the non-active directory users didn't see the message (such as the local administrator). Also, logging on as the same user, but on a different server yielded different results - as I was able to execute the .exe without any issues.
After several hours of trawling forum posts with similar issues, I read that some people uninstalled the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration, which seemed to solve things:
This is found within control panel > add/remove programs > windows components. After removing it, the error message still appeared, but I had previously read that executable files are blocked if moved from one location to another, preventing them from being used until unblocked:
If you right-click on the .exe and choose properties - you'll see something similar to the above. Click on unblock and you'll be able to execute the file once again!
So, what originally appeared to be a permissions error, limited to the active directory domain - turned out to be linked to Internet Explorer's Enhanced Security Configuration. I suppose in a production environment you'd trust the share(s) prior to trying to execute files on them, but even so - it just goes to show how unrelated error messages can be!