Installer errors with redirected My Docs

[Gnarbiscuit]

There is an issue with the ffxivsetup.exe installer where it cannot access 'My Documents' if it is redirected via Group Policy. This is common in network setups with a domain controller (Windows Server) having all the users My Documents, etc. all located on the server instead of the client computer. The problem is that instead of getting the usual "C:\Users\myname\My Documents" path, it is a UNC path such as "\\server\Users\myname\My Documents" and the game installer crashes because of this.

The error code is [11003][19901], with the potential addition of [2] at the end. Not sure what the difference is.

There is a workaround I found, but it breaks the actual feature on the operating system.

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This workaround worked for me, but is AT YOUR OWN RISK and it is not officially supported or endorsed anywhere.

1) Open up the Start menu, select Run (or press Windows key + R), and enter 'regedit' to open the registry editor.

2) Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\

3) Look for the 'Personal' key. It should show the UNC path (\\server\path). Change this to "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents". This can fail on reboot though, so what I did was map a network drive to the path (Z:\ to \\server\myname) and put the full drive path in the key, so my registry key became: Z:\My Documents

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What I'm asking for is for the installer and boot/updater to support the UNC path that Windows already supports. The game can still install to the local hard drive, but it's the files that are stored in My Documents that are causing the whole error and making the game unable to launch or patch.

This isn't a massive problem for me, but I'm hoping to bring this bug to the dev's attention and maybe help someone out who went through this issue.

[Gnarbiscuit]

Update:
Here's what happens after a reboot and group policy forces the redirect back to the UNC path:



The launcher/installer is also looking for //server/path, when it should be \\server\path.

Hoping to get some moderator attention for this bug.

[Nekodar]

While I agree it's something that should be fixed at some point in time, I'm curious so I have to ask... Why do you want to game on a domain connected computer?
Things like gaming don't really belong in a domain imo...

[Gnarbiscuit]

I know it's not quite optimal to be on a domain, but I'm a network admin for a living
My home domain is mostly a test environment + backed the hell up.

The My Documents redirection can also be done on home versions such as to a network storage server so, although this is a kind of rare case, it could affect other players as well.