Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" triggered by normal user, but not administrator

[jmarkus]

This error occurs when I am running a java application in Windows 10. The main application works fine for both the normal user and the administrator accounts. There is a button to change some preferences in the application that when run as administrator also works correctly, but when run as a normal user breaks with this error:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at gui_utils.ConfigFileReader.processLine(Unknown Source)
        at gui_utils.ConfigFileReader.processLineByLine(Unknown Source)
        at config_settings.JT_Preferences.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at os_gui.Main_Frame.cmd_jtPrefActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
        at os_gui.Main_Frame.access$900(Unknown Source)
        at os_gui.Main_Frame$7.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
        at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2022)
        at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2348)
        at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:402)
        at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:259)
        at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(BasicButtonListener.java:252)
        at java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(AWTEventMulticaster.java:289)
        at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6539)
        at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3324)
        at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6304)
        at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2239)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4889)
        at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2297)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4711)
        at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4904)
        at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4535)
        at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4476)
        at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2283)
        at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2746)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4711)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:760)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:74)
        at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:84)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:733)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:731)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:74)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:730)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:205)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)

This is a 3rd party application. I don't have access to the code. I am wondering if someone with some expertise can give me some suggestions as to where to look in order to understand what differences between the 2 accounts may be causing the error. I suspect it is some differences in java configuration, but I know very little.

Thanks,
jm