Cannot start GAMS IDE

> I cannot start the GAMS IDE when I am not
> connected to the network. I get a message
> like:
> Problem with system file
> \ecomfp01\user$\My Documents\gamsdir\gamside.ini
> Error 1231: The network location cannot be reached.

The GAMS IDE uses the "My Documents" directory to store an initialization file. It will refuse to run if this directory can not be accessed. Usually this directory is on the local c: drive, but some system administrators may choose to have this directory on a network drive. The result is that the GAMS IDE will not start if your laptop is not connected to the network, even if GAMS itself is installed on the local c: drive.

The work-around is to create a shortcut on the desktop with target:

"C:\Program Files\GAMS22.8\gamside.exe" c:\projects\gams\gamside.ini

When you click on this shortcut the GAMS IDE will use the c:\projects\gams directory to store the initialization file. Make sure this directory exist!

The IDE Help has some notes on this (not being able to start the IDE, you would need to click on gamside.chm in the GAMS system directory).