How to open CSV file in R when R says "no such file or directory"?
To throw out another option, why not set the working directory (preferably via a script) to the desktop using setwd('C:\John\Desktop') and then read the files just using file names
Try
f <- file.choose()
to choose the file interactively and save the name in f.
Then run read.csv on the saved filename
d <- read.csv(f)