Access Startup Path with Vista?

[Joe Cool]

Pardon me if this is an inappropriate newsgroup for this question.

I recently upgraded to a new computer at home replacing an XP Pro
system with a Vista Home Premium 64bit system. I have an app I wrote
for personal use that maintains an XML configuration file in the
application's startup path. I find now with Visat my app does not have
write access to that folder, and it doesn't appear that I can even
access the permissions for that folder. Is that folder off limits now?
Am I going to have to move that file to the local application settings
special folder?

 

[Alan]

Pardon me if this is an inappropriate newsgroup for this question.

I recently upgraded to a new computer at home replacing an XP Pro
system with a Vista Home Premium 64bit system. I have an app I wrote
for personal use that maintains an XML configuration file in the
application's startup path. I find now with Visat my app does not have
write access to that folder, and it doesn't appear that I can even
access the permissions for that folder. Is that folder off limits now?
Am I going to have to move that file to the local application settings
special folder?

If your app path is not your user folder then it's possible your Vista
login doesn't have permissions for the folder. Use Explorer to view
the permissions on it. With an Administrator account you can grant
access to your Vista account.

-- Alan
-- cleartopartlycloudy.blogspot.com

 

[Joe Cool]

If your app path is not your user folder then it's possible your Vista
login doesn't have permissions for the folder.  Use Explorer to view
the permissions on it.  With an Administrator account you can grant
access to your Vista account.

It's a brand new system, I setup my account using the Dell new system
initialize wizard. It never asked for an administrator account
password. My account is listed as the administrator. The list of user
accounts only show me and an account called User.

 

[Alan Pretre]

Is this app in your Startup folder? If so, see if Vista refused to start it,
there is an icon in the tray showing programs it refuses to start up.

-- Alan
-- cleartopartlycloudy.blogspot.com

If your app path is not your user folder then it's possible your Vista
login doesn't have permissions for the folder. Use Explorer to view
the permissions on it. With an Administrator account you can grant
access to your Vista account.

It's a brand new system, I setup my account using the Dell new system
initialize wizard. It never asked for an administrator account
password. My account is listed as the administrator. The list of user
accounts only show me and an account called User.

 

[Alan Pretre]

Sorry, I also remembered, on an OS upgrade rather than a fresh install it is
possible that the SID's for existing file objects are the XP SID's. If you
are the only user and you would like to be the owner of all of your files go
into Explorer on the folder, choose Properties, Advanced, Owner tab, check
Replace owner on subcontainers and objects, select your user name. Then OK.

-- Alan

-- cleartopartlycloudy.blogspot.com

 

[Family Tree Mike]

Pardon me if this is an inappropriate newsgroup for this question.

I recently upgraded to a new computer at home replacing an XP Pro
system with a Vista Home Premium 64bit system. I have an app I wrote
for personal use that maintains an XML configuration file in the
application's startup path. I find now with Visat my app does not have
write access to that folder, and it doesn't appear that I can even
access the permissions for that folder. Is that folder off limits now?
Am I going to have to move that file to the local application settings
special folder?

If you are talking about c:\program files or c:\program files (x86), for
your install location, then this is quite logical. MS never intended
anything to be written to by apps once installed in this area.

If your app can be copied or installed to a different folder such as
c:\myapp, you might succeed. It sounds like these are user settings,
not machine settings, so c:\users\someuser\appdata\local may be a place
to store the file.

 

[Joe Cool]

Is this app in your Startup folder? If so, see if Vista refused to start it,
there is an icon in the tray showing programs it refuses to start up.

The app is in my startup folder and it is starting up just fine. Since
this is the first time it is being launched there is no configuration.
I get the permission error when I try to save the configuration for
the first time.

 

[Joe Cool]

If you are talking about c:\program files or c:\program files (x86), for
your install location, then this is quite logical.  MS never intended
anything to be written to by apps once installed in this area.

If MS never intended to let users have access to C:\Program Files then
how come they let us do that with XP?

 

[Family Tree Mike]

If MS never intended to let users have access to C:\Program Files then
how come they let us do that with XP?

My company has the settings in XP identical to those of Vista. That
said, I did not mean to imply my statement held in general for XP. It
was only intended to apply to Vista out of the box. Vista of course can
probably be configured to get around this setting, but that's a question
for another group.

 

[Vista Succubus Hunter]

Pardon me if this is an inappropriate newsgroup for this question.

I recently upgraded to a new computer at home replacing an XP Pro
system with a Vista Home Premium 64bit system. I have an app I wrote
for personal use that maintains an XML configuration file in the
application's startup path. I find now with Visat my app does not have
write access to that folder, and it doesn't appear that I can even
access the permissions for that folder. Is that folder off limits now?
Am I going to have to move that file to the local application settings
special folder?

You don't have access and/or permissions to certain folders or registry
hives on Vista, like you had it on XP.

<http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/folder-virtualization-concepts-windows-vista>