The localRepo property in the file depmngr.properties cannot be set to any directory under Windows. Using relative, absolute or paths made up of the parameters such as ${PLY_HOME}\some\dir all does not work because internally the path gets expanded and Java thinks the ':' after the drive letter signifies a protocol it does not know. Have also tried the file type URI to no effect. Very hard to fix because Ply is built using itself! :-) Catch 22 - Ply needs a fix for Windows, to compile the fix you need Ply.