Cannot save a freshly created bmp file, help needed - vb.net

Question

Hate to sound like a broken record, but I simply cannot get the program I wrote in Visual Basic to write a file when run standalone; but it works fine when run via the debugger.
Simplified, the code looks like this (and the bitmap image is being created and is being saved, i.e., the file does not already exist):
Using bmp As New Bitmap(imgHorSize, imgVerSize) ‘ the sizes are not too large
<build the bitmap>
Dim fName As String = “C:\Users\<name>\Desktop\temp\foobar.jpg"
bmp.Save(fName, ImageFormat.Jpeg)
End Using
When I run this outside the debugger, I get
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path
'C:\Users<name>\Desktop\temp\foobar.jpg' is denied
I saw some notes that suggest there should be a \\ after C:. Other sources show using a / instead of a \. Not sure that either really matters (since the directory name is coming from the result of a FolderBrowserDialog). I have checked the folder permissions on temp and see that my account has full control. I added user Everyone, via the security tab, and gave it full control. Same problem. As an experiment, I changed the above code to
Using bmp As New Bitmap(imgHorSize, imgVerSize)
<build the bitmap>
Dim fName As String = “C:\Users\<name>\Desktop\temp\foobar.jpg"
Dim file As System.IO.StreamWriter
file = My.Computer.FileSystem.OpenTextFileWriter(fName, True)
file.WriteLine("Here is the first string.")
End Using
and I got the exact same error. I also tried creating a MemoryStream, but that also didn’t work.
So, the issue is probably not related to the bmp.Save process, but something more fundamental. I have been looking at various things and have tried a few of them, but nothing works. This should be super easy to do, so what am I doing wrong?
== follow up ==
To come up with something to share in its entirety, I just wrote the following, very simple program that basically does the same as the real program:
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing.Imaging
Public Class Form1
Structure myImages
Dim strFName As String
Dim imgL As Image
End Structure
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim imgLI As myImages
imgLI.strFName = "C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\EinRiddle\ItemImages\An_Cat.jpg"
imgLI.imgL = New Bitmap(Image.FromFile(imgLI.strFName), 150, 150)
Dim bmp As New Bitmap(300, 400)
Using bmp
Dim gr As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)
gr.Clear(Color.WhiteSmoke)
gr.DrawImage(imgLI.imgL, 20, 20)
bmp.Save("C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\testImg.jpg", ImageFormat.Jpeg)
gr.Dispose()
End Using
Application.Exit()
End
End Sub
End Class
I am getting the same error message...

Answer 1

Have you tried another directory? Often one cannot write a file to the desktop.
Have you tried another format (for example ImageFormat.Bmp)?
You use “ instead of " ... Is that the mistake? Ah, I guess this is not the real code and you wrote this from memory and and something made “
Sometimes it takes a while before the picture and graphics can be disposed because the image is saved lazily. Even if this is not welcomed, give it a try
bmp.Save("C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\testImg.jpg", ImageFormat.Jpeg)
Application.DoEvents()
gr.Dispose()
End Using

Answer 2

I found the answer: On this computer, my user files are on the D: drive. Thus, when I changed the path from C: to D:, it worked. Of course, why this is necessary, since there is symbolic link, I don't understand...