Unable to remove read-only attribute from files and folders

[Guest]

It's probably a symptom of me not understanding permissions completely, but I
can't remove read-only from any files or folders that came with Vista or that
a third-party app installs.

I bring up the Properties window for a folder, uncheck read-only and apply
it to the folder and all sub-items. A message box warns me that I don't have
permission to change the attributes, but I hit Continue and it shows me a
message box that appears to show some kind of activity anyway. I then close
the Properties window and bring it up again to find the read-only box checked
again and all the sub-files and sub-folders likewise read-only.

For the record, I'm running build 5384 on my home PC and with the default
administrator account that Vista prompts you to create on first boot. Please
let me know how to get this permission, and thanks in advance.

 

[Peter M]

You have to add your sefl to the list of those that can access. The admin
account you get installing Vista is really a semi-admin acct. So if your
user name is chuckles, you have to add chuckles to the offending folders in
properties/security and take "full control" of the folder. I'm far from an
expert and have been kicked in the rear by Vista on the permission stuff. If
it's a system acct (ie it tells you you need permission from so and so... )
then i'm as clueless as any newbie here. <G>

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

By default, you only have write access to folders and files that are inside
your user directory (c:\users\yourname), some hidden folders, and any folder
that you have created.

The only time you should need write access to any folders outside of this
area is when doing system administration or installing a program.

This can be done easily by running whatever tool or install program you are
using "As Administrator" by right-clicking it and clicking Run As
Administrator, which will allow the tool to access the system.

This is the new way of doing things in Windows Vista - the system is locked
down, and only programs that you Run As Administrator or that automatically
ask you for permission are allowed access to your computer. This will
prevent programs from gaining access to your computer without your
knowledge.

This "Run As Administrator" command is great to run on Windows Explorer,
command prompt, and control.exe (control panel).

It is *NOT* recommended that you change the security settings to allow write
access to the operating-system created files and folders, as this will
greatly reduce the security of your system.

- JB

Vista Support FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys, it's all sorted out now. I didn't specify the precise problem in
my last post because I didn't see any benefit to doing so.

The problem involved installing a certain game (Baldur's Gate II), which
needs to edit its own .ini file after installation for configuration reasons
(and for fixing graphic issues, one of which I experienced). I couldn't fix
the graphic issue because BGII was installed in Program Files and Vista
locked all its files down (like you said, Jimmy), including the .ini file.
It's working now that I reinstalled it in my user directory.

Good to know that behavior for the future, all my programs are going in the
user directory from now on and I'm leaving Program Files to Vista itself.

Thanks again for your help, both of you.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Just a guess ... are you running the 64-bit version of Windows?

I believe in the 32-bit version windows notices this kind of thing, where a
program has opened a file and then tries to save it, but it does not have
permission to save it, so windows will instead save it to the location it
was supposed to be at in the first place (a special folder in your user
folder). Then, when the program next opens that file, it gets the new copy
instead of the file from the old location.

This behavior should save alot of pain, but can be a cause of confusion in
certain circumstances.

However, it will be nice when programs finally start putting stuff in the
places that MS has told them to put stuff for the last 6 years, so we don't
have to deal with problems like this.

- JB

Vista Support FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Guest]

Hello,

By default, you only have write access to folders and files that are inside
your user directory (c:\users\yourname), some hidden folders, and any folder
that you have created.

The only time you should need write access to any folders outside of this
area is when doing system administration or installing a program.

This can be done easily by running whatever tool or install program you are
using "As Administrator" by right-clicking it and clicking Run As
Administrator, which will allow the tool to access the system.

Thanks a lot for that info JB. I've been super frustrated with Vista, as
once I upgraded, all of my old files (like mp3s, jpgs, etc) were made
read-only and I was about to pull my hair out by going in to security and
adding myself and giving myself full access to the files. Just a couple of
questions for you though.

1) Do we have to do the 'run as administrator' each time we open Explorer?
2) I just opened explorer with the 'run as administrator' option and tried
to deselect the read-only on files in my C: drive and it got pretty far into
the process but then I got that menacing error message about needing admin
access. when I click continue, I get an error message saying 'access denied'.
(this is the point where I was going into the security preferences, adding
myself and giving myself full access) Is there a better way of doing this?
3) Would there be any advantage in creating a 2nd user account and just
using that acct all of the time?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Kerry Brown]

Where you trying to change the whole C: drive in one go? If you did then it
won't work. You should only change the permissions and/or attributes on the
files that need changing. Don't try to change the permissions on system
files.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

1) Do we have to do the 'run as administrator' each time we open Explorer?

No. Actually, this doesn't do anything anymore - explorer cannot be ran as
administrator. I strongly disagree with Microsoft's decision to do this ...
however, as far as I know, this is the only exception.

2) I just opened explorer with the 'run as administrator' option and tried
to deselect the read-only on files in my C: drive and it got pretty far
into
the process but then I got that menacing error message about needing admin
access. when I click continue, I get an error message saying 'access
denied'.
(this is the point where I was going into the security preferences, adding
myself and giving myself full access) Is there a better way of doing this?

Like Kerry said, you should not change default permissions on your drive C.

The permissions are in place to protect your system from malicious programs.
Changing them removes this protection.

You should only change permissions on files you created.

3) Would there be any advantage in creating a 2nd user account and just
using that acct all of the time?

Many people consider using a standard user account to be better than using
the default prompt-protected administrator account provided by Vista.

Although this is debatable, there are differences: If you run as a standard
user, you will receive less prompts asking for your permission. Also,
instead of just being prompted for permission, you will have to enter the
password for your administrative account in order to run a program that
requests permission.

It's up to you on this one

Thanks for your help!

You're welcome


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Kerry Brown]

No. Actually, this doesn't do anything anymore - explorer cannot be ran as
administrator. I strongly disagree with Microsoft's decision to do this
... however, as far as I know, this is the only exception.

I use Run as administrator with Windows Explorer quite often. Are you saying
it doesn't do anything or it isn't possible? I do get a uac prompt when I do
this and it has allowed me to rename folders and change NTFS permissions I
couldn't do without using Run as administrator. Both of my computers
(Ultimate and Business) are joined to a domain, I'm not running as a domain
admin, I am running as a local admin, if that makes any difference.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Have you changed your explorer settings to Run explorer windows in seperate
processes? If you have this setting, this should allow you to use Run As
Administrator on explorer as long as you are logged in as an administrator.
I guess I should have said, with the default configuration, it is not
possible to elevate explorer when logged in as an admin .

 

[Kerry Brown]

Have you changed your explorer settings to Run explorer windows in
seperate processes? If you have this setting, this should allow you to use
Run As Administrator on explorer as long as you are logged in as an
administrator. I guess I should have said, with the default configuration,
it is not possible to elevate explorer when logged in as an admin .

I haven't changed anything on the notebook. That's my work machine. I
installed Vista, joined my SBS domain, and installed programs. I may have on
my other Vista machine. That's the one I experiment on. Where is the setting
to do this. I'll see what it is on both machines.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Here's what I have discovered thru testing:

In explorer,

Organize -> Folder and Search Options -> View tab -> "Launch folder windows
in a seperate process"

* If this option is disabled (default):

right-clicking explorer.exe and clicking Run As Administrator should have no
effect. You will still get the UAC prompt, but the resulting explorer Window
will not actually be running with administrator privileges.

* If this option is enabled

running explorer.exe "as administrator" will actually get you an admin
explorer window, IF and ONLY if you have no other explorer windows open.

If you DO have another explorer window open, this will have no effect.

If you do end up with an "admin" explorer window, *ALL* further windows
explorer windows that you open will ALSO be "admin" windows (even if you
don't run them "as administrator"), until you close all open explorer
windows.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Kerry Brown]

Thank you. I didn't know that. I must have changed that setting at some
point in experimenting on the desktop. On the notebook because I was seeing
the uac prompt I assumed it was elevated because I had done stuff that
required elevation on the desktop and it worked. Testing it now on the
notebook it is working exactly as you say. I get the uac prompt but not
elevated privileges. I wonder if this is a bug or by design?

 

[Jimmy Brush]

The elevation was working just fine until around RC1 when it starting
behaving as it is now - I bugged it, then around RC2 it came back as by
design.

I think the reasoning behind the change was something very technical, as I
seem to remember reading a MSie's blog about it, but I can't remember much
about it now. Something to do with a higher privileged process consisiting
of lower privileged chunks breaks the security model, I believe.

Still, I think the current behavior is misleading and very inconsistant...
something else should have been done.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Guest]

I've read your reply and PETER M's reply. I think you are answering the area
I need help in but the answers aren't quite working. I'm trying to backup
Quicken and it just won't work. When I try to BACKUP to C: , it tells me C
is READ ONLY. I have tried creating new folders in the root of C, C:
Users:Jacci Eubank and Cesktop and none will allow me to perform this
backup. All say that C is READ ONLY. I' getting NO WHERE! Please advise.

Jacci

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

This sounds like an incompatability between quicken and vista.

You are allowed to write to any folder that you create and folders on your
desktop and in your profile; so there should not be any problem.

I would suggest downloading any available updates for Quicken.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Bob]

Open a command prompt and type
attrib -r +s drive:\<path>\<foldername>
then press enter.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Bruce.

Have you seen this KB article:
You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders
in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, or in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;326549

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[QuickSilverbuddyoceanblue]

I wish I had some answers for you but I don't. For I am in the same shoe. I
have read all the threads, follow up. You are the only one that has the
problem that almost relates to mine. All I need to know is where it the heck
do I but my password? Windows has requested a password but doesn't provide me
a place to put the darn thing! This is so simple. But nobody has any answers.
I shouldn't have to go through all that change this and add that. I am trying
to run a business and losing money now. I will keep looking for you. But if
you hear of any one else with this problem and has an answer please let know.
I am ready to pull my hair out!

 

[Bob]

I haven't been following this thread. Has anyone tried this:

Add "Take Ownership" to right-click menu in Vista
http://www.petri.co.il/add-take-ownership-context-menu-vista.htm