Installer can't create shortcuts in Start Menu

[TEPonta]

Suddenly, wheever I try to install anything, I get as far as the step
where shortcuts are created and the installer informs me it doesn't have
permission to continue. It says it can't access the folder where the
shortcuts go. Hitting retry repeatedly doesn't change anything, so my
only option it to cancel.

R-Clicking and running as administrator doesn't help. Taking ownership
of the Users folder and all sub-folders doesn't help either. My Users
folder contains various sub-folders, some of which aren't accessible.
UAC is disabled.

Since this is a home PC and I'm the only user, is there some way to get
rid of most of these accounts (My Users folder has 8 Sub-folders:
Administrator, Administrator.Tom-PC, Administrator.Tom-PC.ooo, All
Users, Default, Default User, Public, and Tom), and just keep the bare
minimum necessary to use my system? I've used Windows since it was
first released, and various DOS versions before that, and I've never
seen anything as hosed up as this.

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TEPonta