[Gimp-user] Troubles with Windows 10

[Ken Farley <farleykj gmail com>]

Hello,
I've just recently been forced to move from a Windows 7 computer to
Windows 10. I have a number of problems with GIMP which might be
caused by Windows 10, or by the draconian number of "security"
programs we are forced to have running on our systems. Here's the
situation:

(1) I cannot run any version of Gimp newer than 2.10.0. Attempting to
start any newer version generates a Gimp process, but never actually
brings up the program. Not even the splash screen. Poking about on
various user forums suggests that the culprit in this case might be
Sophos. Unfortunately, knowing the possible cause does not give me a
cure. If anyone knows of a fix for this, please let me know.

(2) Running version 2.10.0 is okay, it has the functionality I need
(though, I wonder what improvements I'm missing - probably a lot).
However, whenever I try to do any sort of file operation - like
opening, saving, exporting, etc. - I get at least one error box with
the message

COULD NOT RETRIEVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FILE
Error when getting information for file "C:\
": No such file or directory

I suspect this problem has something to do with the environment
variables for "HOME", "HOMEDRIVE" or "HOMEPATH"? Unfortunately these
are set by our IT people to a directory on our shared network server.
Something I don't like, but can't change. Is my suspicion true? If
not, what is the cause of this mess? It's particularly annoying if I
try to change the configuration options -> it generates about 20 of
those windows which must be closed one at a time before anything else
can be done.

So, any ideas about my troubles, or any other system configurations
that might make GIMP run nicely would be appreciated.

Ken