MMC Message....

[William B. Lurie]

I asked about this a while ago, and I don't recall
getting a good explanation, and meanwhile it went
away so I dropped the matter. Now today it appeared
again (as of course we knew it would)......and this
is it:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/b/i/billurie/MMCmsg.jpg

I get this message when I try to do a DEFRAG on that drive.
It seems to be telling me that I don't have the right
access, or enough room, or something. But I have 5 GB
of unused space on that drive, and I'm the sole owner
and user of this whole machine.

Please advise, and thank you.

 

[Jim]

I asked about this a while ago, and I don't recall
getting a good explanation, and meanwhile it went
away so I dropped the matter. Now today it appeared
again (as of course we knew it would)......and this
is it:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/b/i/billurie/MMCmsg.jpg
I get this message when I try to do a DEFRAG on that drive.
It seems to be telling me that I don't have the right
access, or enough room, or something. But I have 5 GB
of unused space on that drive, and I'm the sole owner
and user of this whole machine.

Please advise, and thank you.

The message says nothing about not having enough room. 5 GB may or may not
be enough; defrag works much better with around 15% free space (although
that is not a hard and fast rule).
Instead, it says that the file might be missing (hard to believe) or that
you may not have sufficient permissions.
So, what are the permissions on the file?

Jim

 

[William B. Lurie]

The message says nothing about not having enough room. 5 GB may or may not
be enough; defrag works much better with around 15% free space (although
that is not a hard and fast rule).
Instead, it says that the file might be missing (hard to believe) or that
you may not have sufficient permissions.
So, what are the permissions on the file?

Jim

Jim, I've used defrag right there for 18 months
with whatever "permissions" came with the system.
One would think that the defaults would be still
the same....certainly positive for the one and
only user and owner. And I have well over 25% free
space.
Bill

 

[William B. Lurie]

The message says nothing about not having enough room. 5 GB may or may not
be enough; defrag works much better with around 15% free space (although
that is not a hard and fast rule).
Instead, it says that the file might be missing (hard to believe) or that
you may not have sufficient permissions.
So, what are the permissions on the file?

Jim

Specifically, Jim, the partition is 22G, with 16G used
and 6 G unused.....that's 27% free space.....

 

[Jim]

Jim, I've used defrag right there for 18 months
with whatever "permissions" came with the system.
One would think that the defaults would be still
the same....certainly positive for the one and
only user and owner. And I have well over 25% free
space.
Bill

Yes, one would think so. However, if I had this problem, I would want to
know what the permissions are.
Malware can do things like this without your knowledge.
Jim

 

[William B. Lurie]

Yes, one would think so. However, if I had this problem, I would want to
know what the permissions are.
Malware can do things like this without your knowledge.
Jim

Well, Jim, it went away again, but we know that it will be back.
That's "Elmer's Law". But tell me about permissions: where do I find them,
what do I do? Maybe sign on inSafe Mode as Administrator, which
I never do....and then what? Or somewhere else?
Bill

 

[Jim]

Well, Jim, it went away again, but we know that it will be back.
That's "Elmer's Law". But tell me about permissions: where do I find them,
what do I do? Maybe sign on inSafe Mode as Administrator, which
I never do....and then what? Or somewhere else?
Bill

Login to an account which is a member of the administrators group. You
should have created an account for this and many other purposes.
Open the Control Panel
Click the tab marked "Folder Options"
Find the box labeled "Use Simple File Sharing"
Disable use of simple file sharing.

Find the subject file in Windows\system32.
Right click on the file
Select Properties
You will now see the Security Tab
Make certain that the permissions allow you to execute the file.

By the way, if your computer shares files and folders, using simple file
shares requires use of the Guest account. The Guest account is a good but
imperfectly implemented feature.
Jim

 

[William B. Lurie]

Login to an account which is a member of the administrators group. You
should have created an account for this and many other purposes.
Open the Control Panel
Click the tab marked "Folder Options"
Find the box labeled "Use Simple File Sharing"
Disable use of simple file sharing.

Find the subject file in Windows\system32.
Right click on the file
Select Properties
You will now see the Security Tab
Make certain that the permissions allow you to execute the file.

By the way, if your computer shares files and folders, using simple file
shares requires use of the Guest account. The Guest account is a good but
imperfectly implemented feature.
Jim

Thanks for the detailed info, Jim. I'll see if I can
get there from here. FYI, you say "...if your computer
shares files and folders....". The answer is, I never
set this machine up to share anything with anybody. I
don't want any sharing and I don't want any Guest accounts...
and I don't want anything less than complete and full access
to my own machine, which hardly seems too much to ask. One
might wonder why it is not the default installation on an
OEM machine.\ Bill

 

[William B. Lurie]

Thanks for the detailed info, Jim. I'll see if I can
get there from here. FYI, you say "...if your computer
shares files and folders....". The answer is, I never
set this machine up to share anything with anybody. I
don't want any sharing and I don't want any Guest accounts...
and I don't want anything less than complete and full access
to my own machine, which hardly seems too much to ask. One
might wonder why it is not the default installation on an
OEM machine.\ Bill

Continuing on, Jim, as I suspected, Folder Options does not have a box
labeled "Use Simple File Sharing". maybe it's because I am not logged
on to any account that I am aware of. I boot the machine and it is
automatic, no log in to any account, no password, no nothing. You'll
have to backtrack me. The only way I have ever seen a choice of
where to log on, is when I go to Safe Mode......there I can log in
as "Compaq User" or "Administrator", and I have never used the
"Administrator" log in. Should I? And go into Safe Mode?
Bill

 

[Jim]

Thanks for the detailed info, Jim. I'll see if I can
get there from here. FYI, you say "...if your computer
shares files and folders....". The answer is, I never
set this machine up to share anything with anybody. I
don't want any sharing and I don't want any Guest accounts...
and I don't want anything less than complete and full access
to my own machine, which hardly seems too much to ask. One
might wonder why it is not the default installation on an
OEM machine.\ Bill

Your machine, in fact all XP machines have a Guest account. It should be
disabled (it cannot be deleted).
Jim

 

[Jim]

Continuing on, Jim, as I suspected, Folder Options does not have a box
labeled "Use Simple File Sharing". maybe it's because I am not logged
on to any account that I am aware of. I boot the machine and it is
automatic, no log in to any account, no password, no nothing. You'll
have to backtrack me. The only way I have ever seen a choice of
where to log on, is when I go to Safe Mode......there I can log in
as "Compaq User" or "Administrator", and I have never used the
"Administrator" log in. Should I? And go into Safe Mode?
Bill

You can access the Administrator account via Safe Mode.
By the way, Windows Explorer also has a folder options tab.
You get to the box from the control panel:
Click Folder Options
Click View
At the bottom of the box is a box labeled "Use Simple File Sharing
(Recommended)"

In your case, leave the box checked and disable the Guest Account. These
steps will make it much harder for someone to access your computer behind
your back.
However, you cannot see the permissions on any file or folder unless simple
file sharing is disabled.
Jim

 

[William B. Lurie]

You can access the Administrator account via Safe Mode.
By the way, Windows Explorer also has a folder options tab.
You get to the box from the control panel:
Click Folder Options
Click View
At the bottom of the box is a box labeled "Use Simple File Sharing
(Recommended)"

****************************************************
Jim, I don't find that box on my machine.
See this screen shot:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/b/i/billurie/SHOT003.gif
Bill
****************************************************