How to fix PermissionError: (WinError 5) Access is denied when launching Plover

When Plover is running as an administrator in Windows, it won't display the main window for Plover and will show an unexpected error message when trying to launch as a standard user. This occurs if Plover's installer is run as an administrator and launched from it upon finishing installation. Here's how to fix it.

Traceback (most recent call last): File "build/windist/data\Lib\site-packages\plover\scripts\main.py", line 136, in main File "build/windist/data\Lib\site-packages\plover\oslayer\controller.py", line 81, in send command File "build/windist/data\Lib\site-packages\plover\oslayer\controller.py", line 74, in _send_message File "multiprocessing\connection.py", line 505, in Client File "multiprocessing\connection.py", line 708, in PipeClient PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied WinError 5 access is denied message when launching Plover.

Ensure Plover is running as a standard user
The access is denied error message appears if Plover is already running, but it must be closed properly. Follow the steps in this section.

Close Plover by signing out

 * 1) Sign out from your Windows computer by doing any of the following:
 * 2) *Using your keyboard: Press and hold Control-Alt-Delete, then choose Sign out.
 * 3) *Using the Start menu: Right-click on the Start menu > Shut down or sign out, then choose Sign out.
 * 4) Sign in to your Windows account, then launch Plover.

From the taskbar

 * 1) Locate the Plover tray icon in the taskbar, right-click on it, then choose Quit Plover.
 * 2) *If it isn't visible, reveal the hidden taskbar icons via the arrow icon.
 * 3) Launch Plover.

Using the Task Manager

 * 1) Launch the Task Manager by doing any of the following:
 * 2) *Using your keyboard: Press and hold Control-Alt-Delete, then choose Task Manager.
 * 3) *Using your keyboard: Press and hold Control-Shift-Esc.
 * 4) Choose the Details tab, then locate the processes named pythonw32.exe.
 * 5) Select the pythonw32.exe process, then click End task.
 * 6) *If there's more than one, repeat this step until there's none left.
 * 7) Launch Plover.

Additional information
If you continue to see WinError 5, check that Plover isn't being run automatically on sign in as an administrator.