I don't know how to explain this any clearer, but you definitely have write permission issues in the Nerf folder. If you installed the CP successfully it would have overwrote that old dead gamespy server entry in your ini: "ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com MasterServerPort=27900"
with a new one. Read my email again and follow the steps I gave you. Your ini is definitely being virtualized if you don't have the new master servers in there.
Progress not being saved is only one symptom of the issue. If you have a virtualized ini progress will be saved to an appdata version of the folder, but it will not allow things like the CP to install or the updater to update files.
