Solution: I had renamed 3dsmax.exe to 3dsmax.exeold . When I renamed it back again this error message stopped showing. Also if 3dsmax.exe was renamed your shortcuts in windows may point to the wrong file. You need to check that they are pointing to the correctly named one. On my start menu, the 3ds max 2016 icon was aiming at the renamed 3dsmaxrenamed.exe, not 3dsmax.exe when I changed it’s properties the error did not recur. Sometimes needs to be 3dsmax instead of 3dsmax.exe
