Symptom

When you attempt to launch Windows Fax and Scan, the following error may occur and Windows Fax and Scan does not open:

Windows Fax and Scan cannot run as it cannot access your documents folder. Please ensure that Windows Fax and Scan can access that folder

Cause

This behavior is observed if:

• You've relocated the Documents folder to a network or removable drive earlier, and the path is currently unreachable.

(or)

• The Documents folder is pointing to a Root folder of a fixed drive (example, D:\). More information...

Resolution

For Case 1: See article Nothing happens when you click on a shell folder link in the Windows Vista Start menu to know how to fix the shell folder path manually.

For Case 2: Revert back the Documents folder to its original location, or relocate it to a folder which is at least one level deep from the Root folder (Example: D:\Documents, or D:\Users\Documents etc). To do so, follow these steps:

• Create the destination folder first
• Click the Start button
• Right-click Documents, and choose Properties
• Select the Location tab
• Click Move and select the target folder
• Click Apply
• Click Yes when you're prompted to move the files to new location
• Click OK