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While it\u2019s thankfully uncommon, we have encountered instances of the version 6 Alchemy Mindworks software refusing to validate, and displaying a message that says \u201cThere has been an error creating the specified file.\u201d We\u2019ve yet to reproduce the beast in house.<\/p>\n
Contrary to rumors and innuendo in this matter, this problem does not lie with either frenzied weasels creeping into our offices late at night in search of leftover pizza, or with the depredations and treachery of left-wing politicians… although you can never be entirely certain of the latter.<\/p>\n
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When Alchemy Mindworks software, such as Graphic Workshop Professional and GIF Construction Set Professional, successfully validates itself, it saves the results of its deliberations in several files on your hard drive. At least, it tries to. For reasons which we\u2019ve yet to wholly fathom, Windows and some third-party security software block access to the folders where said files are stored, or having permitted the files in question to be written once, \u201cprotects\u201d them from being changed during subsequent updates of the Alchemy Mindworks software involved.<\/p>\n
A second, albeit somewhat more unlikely cause of this issue can arise on systems with more than one user account if Alchemy Mindworks software is installed while logged in as one user and then subsequently validated or updated while logged in as a different user. We couldn\u2019t figure out why anyone would want to do this either.<\/p>\n
Addressing this problem is usually pretty trivial, once you appreciate what the little man behind the curtain is up to. Unfortunately, because the cause of the problem is somewhat obscure, so too may be its solution.<\/p>\n
The most effective way to address this issue is usually to remove the affected files and revalidate the Alchemy Mindworks software in question. In this example, we\u2019re going to deal with Graphic Workshop, although the procedure is identical for all the Alchemy Mindworks version 6 applications.<\/p>\n
Your validation should complete without any further appearances of the aforementioned error message. If you haven\u2019t done so previously, we strongly recommend that you permit the validation function to print your registration key and save it to a disk file, which will absolve you of the task of keying it again by hand during future updates.<\/p>\n
When all is well, restart your computer so your security software reawakens.<\/p>\n
As touched on earlier in this posting, this unfortunate issue arises because some aspects of Windows and \/ or some security applications are decidedly more paranoid than is good for them\u2026 or for the people who install them. Left to their own devices, they\u2019ll protect your system somewhat more rigorously than is called for, and break lots of stuff in the process.<\/p>\n