System call to get the 'My Documents' folder failed

When Legacy first starts up it makes a call to a Windows API to get the My Documents folder for the current user.  If Legacy gives you either of the following error messages then that call failed to return a folder.

Here is a little tool we created that you can download and run to test if the windows system call to get your "My Documents" folder and other Windows folders so you can see if the system call is working or not.  Go to #1 below.  Or, to fix the problem see step "2 How to Fix" below.

1. Tool to test your special Windows folders.

https://LegacyFamilyTree.com/Download/FolderLocationTool/FolderLocationSpecial.exe

Run the program and select the 6th item down in the drop down list:

CSIDL_PERSONAL       My Documents

For me the program shows:
C:\Users\Kens\Documents

If it shows nothing for you in the box and if it says that the folder does not exist then you have a problem with the configuration of your Windows My Documents folder that will need to be fixed.  See step "2 How to Fix" below.

2. How to Fix.

To fix your problem we found a great article on the web on how to check and fix problems with default Windows User folders like My Documents, My Pictures, My Videos, etc.  Please see:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18583-user-folders-restore-default-location.html  for  Windows 7

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/9282-folder-view-settings-reset-default-windows-8-a.html  for  Windows 8 and 10

You may also want to try doing a Google search on how to fix your Windows My Documents folder to see what other great tips or helps you might find.

Before you work through the steps in the article above we recommend that you backup your "My Documents" folder before you do anything.  That way no accidents can happen where you lose everything by mistake.  We suggest you create a new folder on your computer somewhere you know how to get to and where you know it won't be removed (this shouldn't be anywhere in your My Documents area.  If you have a second drive that would be great or maybe just in the root like "C:\BackupMyDocs" and copy everything in the My Documents folder over to this new folder.

3. What you should see if your My Document is setup correctly.

If your folder icons don't look like this or if you are missing the "Locations" tab when viewing the properties for your folder then you will need to figure out how to repair things.  The article in step 2 above or a google search you should be able to find help fixing your windows folders.

If after the above steps the problem still occurs browse on your computer to C:\Users\(Name of your user account) and right click the Documents folder and in the sub menu select "include in library" and choose documents from the second sub menu.  Now try installing Legacy again.