I've no idea really, maybe I didn't do the right thing when you suggested that. Maybe I just got lucky the second time around!

Thanks so much, guys - you've cracked it. My Avast anti-virus software was protecting my user folder as part of its ransomware function. Excluding the folder from that protection fixed the problem instantly.

Cheers!

(PS - I'm new here so not sure if I can mark the post as *solved* myself?)

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give that a try! It will confirm that the issue is my PC, which I'm almost certain of anyway as it's clearly not a common Factorio issue. If I can have a game while I go through the slog of fixing my permissions issues it will at least be something! Thanks again.

I gave that a try, but nothing changed. Thanks again for trying to help me out.

Thanks for the prompt responses. Still can't get it to work, though. What a pain!

Hi, all, Hoping you can help me as I am having an issue I cannot solve that is preventing me from playing the game entirely. I have searched the forum and the web for a while now without finding a solution. While I have come across other users with a similar issue, I have not seen a confirmed fix an...