Standalone (64-bit) Installation Not Completing

[CoachGD]

I had standalone v1.14.16 installed and have been trying all afternoon now to install the updated ltr v1.16.4.

The process gets stuck at the creating folder (start menu) stage, and will not complete (I killed it after 30 mins).

Trying run the qgis-ltr-bin.exe file results in the following error.

I found a temporary solution to take a copy of qgis-ltr.bat.tmpl and rename qgis-ltr.bat and can now run from a shortcut to this batch file, but this seems a quite unsatisfying work around. Any assistance on what might be causing the sticking of the install and how it might be fixed such that the applications are added in the usual way?

Note that I have already tried uninstalling previous versions (I had 3.8, 3.10, 3.12 and 3.14 installed). This did nothing. I also tried reinstalling v1.14.16 and now have the same issue... (something to do with my laptop or something installed?)

[gioman]

Duplicate of #41740