Android Studio Emulator: Process finished with exit code 13

After a recent update of Android Studio to version 3.1.2 Build #AI-173.4720617, I can't get the Android Emulator to start. With any AVD, I get the following messages in the Event Log.

11:19 AM Emulator: Could not launch 'C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\emulator/qemu/windows-x86_64/qemu-system-i386.exe': Permission denied

11:19 AM Emulator: Process finished with exit code 13

The first thing I checked is that the folder in question grants me full permission. I exited Android Studio and tried running as Administrator with no luck.

I get the same response if I try to run emulator.exe from the command line (also as Admin).

... \AppData\Local\Android\sdk\emulator>emulator.exe -avd "Nexus_5X_API_26_x86" Could not launch

'C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\emulator/qemu/windows-x86_64/qemu-system-i386.exe': Permission denied

So I tried running qemu-system-i386.exe from the command line and I get the following pop-ups.

The program can't start because libwinpthread-1.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

The message repeats for Qt5Svg.dll, Qt5Core.dll, and Qt5Gui.dll. However, each file can be found in Android\sdk\emulated\lib and in Android\sdk\emulated\lib\qt\lib.

I tried copying libwinpthread-1.dll into the qt\lib folder, and started qemu-system-i386.exe from there. I get another popup...

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close the application.

I've tried reinstalling Android Studio and the SDK. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling the emulator and haxm. I'm running out of ideas.

As for my environment..

• Android Studio 3.1.2
• SDK Build Tools 27.0.3
• Emulator 27.2.9
• SDK Platform-Tools 27.0.1

• SDK Tools 26.1.1

• Windows 10 Enterprise, 64 bit

• 16GB installed memory
• Intel Zeon CPU E3-1270 v5

Please help.