Can you really create a directory called !something?
I have been doing that for years so that my games directory is always on top of the directory list in windows explorer. This is the first time it has been a problem. I'll note that while powershell did not like the !, the bat file approach did not have issues with it. *shrugs* I'll have to give your suggestion a try later as I really am not keen on the bat file approach, but at least it works for me. I guess that is what I get for having a custom install. I have never liked my games in the program files tree, so I always made the c:\!Games directory for my games.