Documents and Settings

[Guest]

After finally managing to enable the Administrator account, I still
apparently don't have permission to access the Documents and Settings folder.
Neither can I access the Application Data in my User folder.

So far, Vista is being extremely resrictive... I don't suppose there is a
'Let me in' tick box anywhere? Alternatively, how can I actually gain access
to these folders? Vista advises me to use the Security tab, but one cannot
'Apply' any changes you make.

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

Sounds like UAC to me, try disabling it and try accessing the folder again:
Click Start > All Programs > Run > type in MSCONFIG > Tools (tab) > scroll
down select Disable UAC > click Launch, restart your system for the changes
to take effect.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

 

[Sean McLeod]

Not sure why you needed to enable the administrator account.

When I browse into c:\users\administrator I get an UAC prompt, which I okay
and then I can continue browsing.

And obivously browsing into my own account, c:\users\sean there is no UAC
prompt and I have no problems browsing that sub-folder.

You say "Documents and Settings" folder. Is this from an XP upgrade? In
clean installs of Vista they've changed that to \users.

Cheers

 

[Sean McLeod]

As mentioned in my reply to the original posting I get a UAC prompt when
accessing other folders like administrator and then I can browse them with
no problems.

If he's not getting a UAC prompt then it's probably a different set of
permissions that administrator doesn't have access to without taking
ownership.

In general it's a bad idea to go round disabling UAC, rather run a command
prompt, or explorer as administrator when you need to if you want to avoid
the UAC prompt.

Cheers

 

[Guest]

I've got exactly the same fault after doing what I thought was a "clean"
install of Vista. It actually left most of drive C intact and renamed the
original Windows directory to Windows.old. I think he problem is that
Documents and Settings is still owned by my XP persona.....still working on
that one.

 

[Sean McLeod]

So do you have a \Documents and Settings and a \users tree now?

If so then run an administrator version of explorer and take/give ownership
to your Vista user account. You probably then want to copy your data from
the \Documents and Settings tree to the \users tree.

Cheers

 

[Chris Altmann]

Try AppData instead of Application Data. There are similar new folders for
the others. I think it's part of the new security regime (and probably to
keep programs from hardcoding the paths to these folders instead of using
the APIs and envars).

 

[Guest]

Yes, because I told windows to show hidden system files.

I was, and indeed am, just testing a number of browses. Firefox stores it's
profile data, which I want to import a new one, in the Application Data
folder. Or at least, it did. That's one reason I wanted to have access
anyway, other than that I'm simply explorering Vista!

It's interesting about the UAC. It was really annoying me, so I had simply
disabled it, I hadn't realised then I could simply load explorer in
Administrator mode to stop those infuriating warnings.

The permissions that don't allow me into the Documents and Settings folder
are different though, and it isn't UAC. Currently I'm using XP, so I'll have
to boot Vista up and try some suggestions later. Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

I belive I tried that at the time and recieved exactly the same permission
warning. Though, I cannot remember.

 

[Sean McLeod]

Vista is more than likely seeing references to a user ID that existed under
XP as the owner etc. of the \documents and settings folders etc. So that's
why I suggested taking ownership with your new vista userID.

Cheers

 

[Guest]

Also, to clear up any misunderstanding:

I've done a completely new installation on a different hard drive to my XP
installation. I have a dual boot system.

This Documents and Settings surely must be part of Vista?

Instrestingly enough, the files I wanted do seem to be located under
/user/[a user]/AppData

Rather than Application Data or Documents and Settings folders which, under
closer inspection are actually shortcuts, though i cannot dtermine their
detination.

 

[Hank]

That's what it looks like to me. When I first installed Vista (clean with
my XP drives offline) it created the Documents and Settings folder. I don't
believe it showed up until I changed the folder options to show everything
(system files and all.) I couldn't access them either, got the UAC message,
etc. I turned off UAC and fiddled with the permissions. I still get errors
that I can change them but somehow I'm able to access them.

Digging deeper I access the videos folder for my account under the Documents
and Settings folder structure and created a file. That file exists in the
Users structure as well.

This reminds me of the soft links you can setup in UNIX. I wasn't aware the
same could be done in Windows (at least not easily.) Maybe this is new or I
just never knew it could be done. It makes sense though. It's a good way
to insure backwards compatibility with a number of application that expect
the Documents and Settings folder. I don't know why MS felt this should be
changed, it was confusing at first. It makes sense and maybe in the future
they can handle this in the registry without having to show the soft links.

Also, to clear up any misunderstanding:

I've done a completely new installation on a different hard drive to my XP
installation. I have a dual boot system.

This Documents and Settings surely must be part of Vista?

Instrestingly enough, the files I wanted do seem to be located under
/user/[a user]/AppData

Rather than Application Data or Documents and Settings folders which,
under
closer inspection are actually shortcuts, though i cannot dtermine their
detination.

I belive I tried that at the time and recieved exactly the same
permission
warning. Though, I cannot remember.

 

[Sean McLeod]

Yes you've been able to create reparse points on directories since Windows
2000, do a search on the linkd.exe command line tool on the web.

Vista is supposed to be adding support for regular symbolic links in
addition to hard links which have been supported for years.

Cheers

That's what it looks like to me. When I first installed Vista (clean with
my XP drives offline) it created the Documents and Settings folder. I
don't believe it showed up until I changed the folder options to show
everything (system files and all.) I couldn't access them either, got the
UAC message, etc. I turned off UAC and fiddled with the permissions. I
still get errors that I can change them but somehow I'm able to access
them.

Digging deeper I access the videos folder for my account under the
Documents and Settings folder structure and created a file. That file
exists in the Users structure as well.

This reminds me of the soft links you can setup in UNIX. I wasn't aware
the same could be done in Windows (at least not easily.) Maybe this is
new or I just never knew it could be done. It makes sense though. It's a
good way to insure backwards compatibility with a number of application
that expect the Documents and Settings folder. I don't know why MS felt
this should be changed, it was confusing at first. It makes sense and
maybe in the future they can handle this in the registry without having to
show the soft links.

Also, to clear up any misunderstanding:

I've done a completely new installation on a different hard drive to my
XP
installation. I have a dual boot system.

This Documents and Settings surely must be part of Vista?

Instrestingly enough, the files I wanted do seem to be located under
/user/[a user]/AppData

Rather than Application Data or Documents and Settings folders which,
under
closer inspection are actually shortcuts, though i cannot dtermine their
detination.

I belive I tried that at the time and recieved exactly the same
permission
warning. Though, I cannot remember.

:

Try AppData instead of Application Data. There are similar new folders
for
the others. I think it's part of the new security regime (and probably
to
keep programs from hardcoding the paths to these folders instead of
using
the APIs and envars).


message
After finally managing to enable the Administrator account, I still
apparently don't have permission to access the Documents and
Settings
folder.
Neither can I access the Application Data in my User folder.

So far, Vista is being extremely resrictive... I don't suppose there
is a
'Let me in' tick box anywhere? Alternatively, how can I actually
gain
access
to these folders? Vista advises me to use the Security tab, but one
cannot
'Apply' any changes you make.