Windows 10 issue - denied access to shortcuts via firewall(?)

[Da Mail Man]

Greetings all, it's been a while!

1)...Using a Lenovo Win 10 64 bit laptop with plenty of ram and hard drive space

2)...ANY icon shortcut on the desktop, when I click on it to "activate" it, gives me an ERROR MESSAGE of;
"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file....
You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item" "

I have not used this computer in a while (but is fully charged on power supply).

3)...HOW do get around this?...I have had this problem before and rebooted a few times and then, all was "well"...

I am NOT using the firewall that came with "10" but, am using firewall called "Private Firewall"...

4)...A few min ago, I shut "PF" off and was able to access desktop icons.....

5)...There must be a setting in it (PF) that I messed up or, PF has gotten corrupt.

6)...I went to uninstall PF (and would reinstall it again) and was denied..Attempted to use "Revo Uninstaller" and pretty much got the same results...

Any ideas?...Thanking in advance...

 

[Da Mail Man]

UPDATE...

I uninstalled the firewall (PF) and re-installed it.....
All i can think of is that I had a setting that was causing this anomaly......
I reinstalled "PF" and have it in "train" mode and so far, all is well..

**How I uninstalled "PF" I believe was to shut off "PF", access "Revo", and do it from there...

 

[Intel_man]

I am NOT using the firewall that came with "10" but, am using firewall called "Private Firewall"...

Genuinely curious as to why you decided to do this?

 

[Da Mail Man]

"personal preference"........

 

[Intel_man]

"personal preference"........

personal preference to what? UI layout? features?

or just general tin foil hat against microsoft?

 

[Da Mail Man]

....you asked me a question.....

.....I answered that question as far as I cared to answer it.....

.....don't beat a dead horse...

...THE END,