I do this as administrator, because you have to on windows.
I get the following error when using runemacs.exe
--------------
Warning (initialization): Unable to access `user-emacs-directory' (~/.emacs.d/).
Any data that would normally be written there may be lost!
If you never want to see this message again,
customize the variable `user-emacs-directory-warning'.
--------------
Not sure what is going on here, but this is my guess:
It is mistakenly thinking that the directory isn't writable probably because it is a <SYMLINK> rather than a <DIR>, or alternatively because the symlink is owned by Administrators.
In GNU Emacs 26.2 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32)
of 2019-04-13 built on CIRROCUMULUS
Repository revision: fd1b34bfba8f3f6298df47c8e10b61530426f749
Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.18362
Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Configured using:
'configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
--without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3''
Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS THREADS LCMS2
Important settings:
value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
locale-coding-system: cp1252
Major mode: Fundamental
Minor modes in effect:
tooltip-mode: t
global-eldoc-mode: t
electric-indent-mode: t
mouse-wheel-mode: t
tool-bar-mode: t
menu-bar-mode: t
file-name-shadow-mode: t
global-font-lock-mode: t
blink-cursor-mode: t
auto-composition-mode: t
auto-encryption-mode: t
auto-compression-mode: t
buffer-read-only: t
line-number-mode: t
transient-mark-mode: t
Load-path shadows:
None found.
Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny dired dired-loaddefs
format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived epg gnus-util rmail
rmail-loaddefs mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231
mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums
mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils elec-pair edmacro kmacro thing-cmds
hide-comnt cl thingatpt+ thingatpt finder-inf package easymenu
epg-config url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core
cl-macs eieio-loaddefs password-cache url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp
byte-compile cconv cl-loaddefs cl-lib time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc
electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32
ls-lisp disp-table term/w32-win w32-win w32-vars term/common-win
tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace
newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page
menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock
font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame cl-generic
cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao
korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech
european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray minibuffer
cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files
text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule
custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote threads w32notify w32
lcms2 multi-tty make-network-process emacs)
Memory information:
((conses 16 243150 15397)
(symbols 48 27066 2)
(miscs 40 78 137)
(strings 32 76674 1849)
(string-bytes 1 1860097)
(vectors 16 22250)
(vector-slots 8 620218 13358)
(floats 8 54 257)
(intervals 56 304 56)
(buffers 992 12))