Cannot find the specified drawing file. Please verify that the file exists

[Anonymous]

I am running AutoCAD 2011 Architectural Desktop under windows 8.1 on a toshiba satellite P870.All was running fine when suddenly I go to open a file on my home network via explorer and get the "Cannot find the specified drawing file. Please verify that the file exists" error.  I can open autocad and browse to the file and open it fine.  I can open any other file types in the same folder.  This happens under wired and wireless network connections.  I tried it at work and that also does the same. I work on too many projects to play the 'open everything from inside autocad' nonsense - that is wa too inefficient.  I don't know if a windows 8.1 update or a toshiba update or something else caused this.  not sure where to go, all my google searches on the error bring up old posts from per windows 8 timeframes.

[Anonymous]

Additional info:

If I try to open a file on a shared volume I get the error but autocad opens Drawing1 etc.  If I then issue the open command I get a filedia rooted to the folder the file I was trying to open was in.  I can open it that way - sucks but at least it works sort of.

If I launch autocad from the icon and try to browse to a network share from within autocad - all network shares are not visible.  I cannot even type a path to a shared volume root.  Somehow autocad is unable to resolve the path.  I think this is more a windows 8.1 thing than an autocad thing but it is autocad that is affected.

If this keeps up I might just have to go back to windows xp!

[pendean]

1. Win8 is not supported with your old software. You didn't check first.
2. Microsoft offers tips on how to run old software through virtual and/XP mode. You didn't check first.
3. You are posting in the wrong forum altogether, you need to be here http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Architecture-General/bd-p/248 You didn't look around first.

[Anonymous]

Actually I did check first. But I guess whatever I read has changed since then or was just wrong. Windows 8 so far has been a constantly shifting changing patch mess. What works fine one day breaks the next, often due to a patch to fix something unrelated. I understand that limited resources must be used to the best advantage. That's precisely why I am still using AutoCad 2011. In fact I just upgraded to 2011 - so to us it is new. As to being in the wrong forum - maybe (since you tell everyone that) it's a sign that this website design is not so easy to navigate as you want to think it is. By the way every time you re-design this site, your older links are broken - so even If I can find a topic with a posted solution - more often than not the link is bad - so poof! no more solution. Please move this post to the appropriate forum and I will try to learn how to find it. I know that there is a solution to this problem. Maybe there are some users who can step into the gap. More testing info for those interested: Thumb drives work fine, apparently the issue has to do with how the OS is passing path information to AutoCAD when a mapped drive is in use. My next step will be to run a repair and see how that works.

[pendean]

If all else fails, many users of old versions of AutoCAD seem to have good luck with a 3rd party tool called LONGBOW that seems to 'fix' newer Windows compatibility issues.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Dean,

Thanks for the tip.  That may be usefull if I have additional issues come up.  So far running AutoCAD 2011 64bit on Windows8.1 64 bit with all my customization etc works fine.  This error only occured on one laptop and has not affected any other systems.  Still not sure what caused it as I have tried uninstalling all the recent updates etc.

Anyway I just researched path issues in windows 8.1 and found that it appears to be related to UAC.  Disabling UAC via the registry fixed this issue:

Open Regedit

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Open  the EnableUA key and change it to 0.

Reboot.

Problem resolved.