Ok, here’s a super odd bug on Windows. I started getting a bunch of errors in various programs.
CoolTerm said: “Runtime Error” with “Failure Condition: mutex.mLockFile”
Process Explorer complained that it was “Unable to extract 64-bit image. Run Process Explorer from writeable directory.”
This of course didn’t make sense, as the program was in a writeable folder, but then it dawned on me that both of these programs could be trying to use my account’s TEMP folder.
So, I’m super annoyed. Somehow my user account’s TEMP folder got wiped out, and replaced as a file instead, which obviously can’t contain more files.
The solution in this case was to erase the Temp file and create a new TEMP folder. But it is insane to me that all the programs that rely on a writeable TEMP folder would give such terrible hints that this was the problem’s source. It also would be awesome if Windows would autorepair this condition at startup.
I searched for “temp folder is a file” and your post was the only result. Indeed deleting the file and creating a new temp folder works. Thanks! Such a dumb problem.