"Windows cannot access the specified..." .Exe's made by electron-packager nor electron-forge - node.js

Question

I'm on a Win 8.1 x64 machine. When I try to run the generated Windows binaries, I get a Windows error message.
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.
What I've tried:
I've checked permissions, my UAC account already had full control.
I switched from using electron-forge make to electron-packager [folder] [projectTitle] --platform=win32 --arch=x64 (same error)
I updated npm, electron, electron-packager, electron-forge, and at one point had to install locally a series of packages and juggle some things from dep to devdep
In particular, I had to move electron dependency to the devdeps section in order to satisfy electron-forge
Copied the .exe to a different folder e.g. e:\ and tried running it from there (same error)
Running as Administrator (same error)
Changed electronPackagerConfig.packageManager to false per the recommended workaround for this recent known issue about pruning failing (not related to this problem, but it's a factor in play)
Opened both .exe's in 7zip and noticed that the one generated by electron-forge didn't have much in it. This may be nothing or it may correlate with the console output for that command, below.
My Goal:
This is my first electron app (I come from a web background). I'm doing this build as a sanity check before I start significantly integrating my app with electron's API.
Output of commands
electron-forge make
$ electron-forge make
We need to package your application before we can make it
[BABEL] Note: The code generator has deoptimised the styling of "E:/cygwin64/tmp/electron-packager/win32-x64/fictionDB-win32-x64/resources/app/.tmp/public/js/ckeditor/ckeditor.js" as it exceeds the max of "500KB".
[BABEL] Note: The code generator has deoptimised the styling of "E:/cygwin64/tmp/electron-packager/win32-x64/fictionDB-win32-x64/resources/app/.tmp/public/js/jquery-ui/jquery-ui.js" as it exceeds the max of "500KB".
Making for the following targets:
$
Notice how it seems to just cut off there? I wouldn't know but I'm guessing that's odd.
electron-packager . fictionDB --platform=win32 --arch=x64
$ electron-packager . fictionDB --platform=win32 --arch=x64
Downloading tmp-50796-1-SHASUMS256.txt-7.1.7
[============================================>] 100.0% of 5.56 kB (5.56 kB/s)
Packaging app for platform win32 x64 using electron v7.1.7
Wrote new app to E:\xxx\Documents\src\js_src\Projects\testbed6\fictionDB-win32-x64
$
package.json
{
"name": "fictionDB",
"private": false,
"version": "0.0.0",
"description": "A way for fiction writers to plan & organize",
"keywords": [
"organize",
"database",
"fiction",
"novel",
"stories",
"characters",
"events",
"locations",
"settings"
],
"dependencies": {
"#sailshq/connect-redis": "^3.2.1",
"#sailshq/lodash": "^3.10.3",
"#sailshq/socket.io-redis": "^5.2.0",
"acorn": "^7.1.0",
"ckeditor": "^4.12.1",
"connect-redis": "^4.0.3",
"electron-compile": "^6.4.4",
"electron-squirrel-startup": "^1.0.0",
"grunt": "^1.0.4",
"jquery": "^3.4.1",
"jquery-ui-dist": "^1.12.1",
"lodash": "^4.17.15",
"request": "^2.88.0",
"sails": "^1.2.3",
"sails-hook-grunt": "^4.0.1",
"sails-hook-orm": "^2.1.1",
"sails-hook-sockets": "^2.0.0",
"socket.io-redis": "^5.2.0"
},
"devDependencies": {
"babel-plugin-transform-async-to-generator": "^6.24.1",
"babel-preset-env": "^1.7.0",
"babel-preset-react": "^6.24.1",
"electron": "^7.1.7",
"electron-forge": "^5.2.4",
"electron-prebuilt-compile": "4.0.0",
"eslint": "5.16.0"
},
"scripts": {
"start": "electron-forge start",
"test": "npm run lint && npm run custom-tests && echo 'Done.'",
"lint": "./node_modules/eslint/bin/eslint.js . --max-warnings=0 --report-unused-disable-directives && echo '✔ Your .js files look good.'",
"custom-tests": "echo \"(No other custom tests yet.)\" && echo",
"package": "electron-forge package",
"make": "electron-forge make"
},
"main": "app/launch.js",
"repository": {
"type": "git",
"url": "git://github.com/NathanHawks/FictionDB.git"
},
"author": "Nathan Hawks",
"license": "MIT",
"engines": {
"node": "^8.9"
},
"config": {
"forge": {
"make_targets": {
"win32": [
"squirrel"
],
"darwin": [
"zip"
],
"linux": [
"deb",
"rpm"
]
},
"electronPackagerConfig": {
"packageManager": false
},
"electronWinstallerConfig": {
"name": "fictionDB"
},
"electronInstallerDebian": {},
"electronInstallerRedhat": {},
"github_repository": {
"owner": "",
"name": ""
},
"windowsStoreConfig": {
"packageName": "",
"name": "fictionDB"
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

I forgot to turn off antivirus shields. That fixed it. (For the permanent solution, I then added a security exception in my antivirus app's settings.)
As a note of interest, the version made by electron-forge didn't work:
However, the one made by electron-packager alone, worked fine.