Hi, I'm having exactly the same issues as the above posters. I triple checked, and the allow scripts to write files setting is on. I also am not getting any log files in ProgramData.
I have tried AE2019, AE2018 and AE2017. Each of them immediately gives me the "It may appear that After Effects has crashed" error. In AE2018 & AE2019, it actually crashes afterwards. In 2017, AE stays open on the render queue but no output path is set and nothing is happening.
Wondering if there's been some sort of Windows update that messes all this up?