Error dialog Couldn't terminate existing NVDA process, abandoning start:
Exception: [WinError 5] Access is denied.

You could look in the log.

You're missing the permission to run NVDA (likely from the current directory?). To figure out the rest is up to you, I don't know what file structure mess you navigated yourself into so it doesn't have the permission.

the only thing I really did was modify the sounds. My main NVDA is fine, though. This is coming from a vm

The only time i'm getting this error is when NVDA intirely freezes and i have to press the shortcut key several times to forcefully restart it. I get this error.
I usually see it after NVDA starts again, likely because i try to run it multiple times and so this causes the error. But other than that, it's all fine for me.

-- (MayowaArogundade):
Error dialog Couldn't terminate existing NVDA process, abandoning start:
Exception: [WinError 5] Access is denied.

--

good to know
-- (diamondStar):
The only time i'm getting this error is when NVDA intirely freezes and i have to press the shortcut key several times to forcefully restart it. I get this error.
I usually see it after NVDA starts again, likely because i try to run it multiple times and so this causes the error. But other than that, it's all fine for me.

-- (MayowaArogundade):
Error dialog Couldn't terminate existing NVDA process, abandoning start:
Exception: [WinError 5] Access is denied.

--

--

yes me too, when it freezes and you press win+r and run nvda for like 3 times it recovers from freeze and it shows:
Error dialogo Couldn't terminate existing NVDA process, abandoning start:
Exception: [WinError 5] Accesso negato.