access denied - application data and others

G

Guest

1. I am the administrator. I am the only user. It is MY computer. I cannot
access files on my Vista computer that I routinely access on my XP computer
including application data. I do not want all this "help" and "security." I
want to access any and all files on my computer. How do I fix it so I can?

2. I want to access this computer from other computers on my network. IOWs,
I want to share ALL my files with any computer on my network. How do I fix it
so I can do that?
 
P

P. Di Stolfo

Hello,

1) Right-click the folder you want to access, select "Properties" -> tab
"Security" -> make sure that you are listed. If not, add your user and give
yourself all permissions.
If that's not allowed/possible, click Advanced. In the tab Owner, click Edit
and select your user to take ownership over the folder.

2) Right-click your drive in Computer -> Properties -> tab "Sharing" and
share your disk. If necessary, you can adjust settings in Control Panel ->
Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center.

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo
 
G

Guest

Been there, done that but still doesn't work - keep getting the same stupid
message. My notebook came installed with the Home Premium edition. I want to
replace a keybd dll with the one I used with XP for an Asian language, the
microsoft one is not all that good.
Can somebody help?
 
R

Ronnie Vernon MVP

Cheryl

When you move to a new operating system, you need to learn what has changed
in the new OS.

The folders you are trying to open are not real folders, they are called
Junctions and they are only there for backward compatibility with XP.

Go to the following website and you will see a more detailed explanation.
This website also has a list of the old folders in XP and their new location
in Vista.

Why do I get an Access Denied error when trying to open a folder?:
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Security/junctions.aspx
 
R

Ronnie Vernon MVP

SRJ

See my reply to Cheryl in this thread.

You do not want to change the permissions on those junction folders. Doing
this can make the system unstable and have a negative effect when
installing older, legacy programs.
 
G

Guest

Ronnie,

What is the fix? I need to change contents of User folders? How do I do
that?

Do you have any links to "fix" this? If I can not edit my folder
contents, what use is my computer? I know that sounds facitious(sp?), but I
dont' get it.

thanks,
Karen
 
R

Ronnie Vernon MVP

Karen
I need to change contents of User folders? How do I do that?

I'm not sure what you mean? You shouldn't be having any problems working
with the actual user folders in Vista?

Can you be more specific about what you are doing and the problems you are
having?

If the problem is that you are trying to move files from an XP installation
to the same, exact folder in Vista then you just need to understand that the
folder names and locations have changed in Vista.

An example of this change is the Documents and Settings folder in XP. It was
changed from "Documents and Settings" to "Users" in Vista.

To enable legacy programs to work on Vista a junction point called Documents
and Settings is present on Vista. This junction is used when a legacy
program is installed and the installation program looks for the Documents
and Settings folder, it will find this junction and be silently redirected
to the Users folder.

This junction contains no files or sub-folders or any other useful
information, it only exists to redirect installation programs to the new
Vista location. The junction point also has a special set of permissions
that deny access to anyone trying to make changes to the junction point. You
should never try to change the permissions on a junction.

If you are moving files from an XP installation to a Vista installation you
need to understand which folder the files need to be moved to in Vista.

To see all of these junctions with their location in XP and their new
location in Vista, perform the following.

Go to Start and type: cmd.exe In the results, right click the cmd.exe
item and select Run As Administrator from the pop-up menu.

This will open a command prompt window.

In the command prompt window type: cd\ and press Enter.

At the C:\> prompt type the following.

dir /aL /s > c:\users\<username>\desktop\JunctionPoints.txt

NOTE: Replace "<username>" with your login name. Include the spaces in
the command

Press Enter.

This will place the JunctionPoints.txt file on your desktop.

Open this file in Notepad and you will see a list of all the junctions with
their old XP location followed by the new Vista location in Brackets.

Examples:
Documents and Settings [C:\Users]
Application Data [C:\ProgramData]
SendTo [C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo]

This file will show you the junctions for the system as well as each user
account of the system.

Let me know if this answers your questions or if you need more help.
 
G

Guest

Ronnie Vernon MVP,
First off. Thanks for trying to help me. In a nutshell:
This has nothing to do with WIndows XP. Nothing to do with files from
WIndows XP. Nothing to do with copying files from any other computer. It is
about using my computer, for something other than watching movie DVDs(which
is all I am able to do up to this point because of issues with VISTA).

Here are just a few examples of things I can not do.
EXAMPLE 01. When I hit the "start" button, it presents this list-->
Default Programs
Microsoft Encarta Plus
Windows Update
Winzip
-----------
Programs
Documents
Settings
Search
Help and Support
Run

WIthout access to add/delete/edit the "Documents & Settings(User folder) I
can not change this list.

EXAMPLE 02.
Creating and saving a word doc becomes an ordeal. For example, I open word
and start typeing stuff. I accidently hit "save" instead of "save as".
BIG PROBELEMS!
Where is my word document? It is in the "users" folder which I can not
access!

EXAMPLE 03:
When I hit "start" and then "programs" there is a list of about 30-40
folders/programs. I have no way of editing this useless list because I can
not access the Documents & Settings(User) folder.

EXAMPLE 04:
Because I can not edit the "Documents and Settings(user)" folder - I can not
edit my "send to" (via a right click) with my mouse.

I have about a dozen more examples, but you get the point!

Is there ANYTHING I can do to use this computer? Words can not really
express my frustration. And as for your verbiage below, there is some sort of
communications issue - because your instructions say --->
<QUOTE>
Go to Start and type: cmd.exe
</QUOTE>

WHere is the "start" you are taking about?

thanks,
weary


//////////////////////////
Ronnie Vernon MVP said:
Karen
I need to change contents of User folders? How do I do that?

I'm not sure what you mean? You shouldn't be having any problems working
with the actual user folders in Vista?

Can you be more specific about what you are doing and the problems you are
having?

If the problem is that you are trying to move files from an XP installation
to the same, exact folder in Vista then you just need to understand that the
folder names and locations have changed in Vista.

An example of this change is the Documents and Settings folder in XP. It was
changed from "Documents and Settings" to "Users" in Vista.

To enable legacy programs to work on Vista a junction point called Documents
and Settings is present on Vista. This junction is used when a legacy
program is installed and the installation program looks for the Documents
and Settings folder, it will find this junction and be silently redirected
to the Users folder.

This junction contains no files or sub-folders or any other useful
information, it only exists to redirect installation programs to the new
Vista location. The junction point also has a special set of permissions
that deny access to anyone trying to make changes to the junction point. You
should never try to change the permissions on a junction.

If you are moving files from an XP installation to a Vista installation you
need to understand which folder the files need to be moved to in Vista.

To see all of these junctions with their location in XP and their new
location in Vista, perform the following.

Go to Start and type: cmd.exe In the results, right click the cmd.exe
item and select Run As Administrator from the pop-up menu.

This will open a command prompt window.

In the command prompt window type: cd\ and press Enter.

At the C:\> prompt type the following.

dir /aL /s > c:\users\<username>\desktop\JunctionPoints.txt

NOTE: Replace "<username>" with your login name. Include the spaces in
the command

Press Enter.

This will place the JunctionPoints.txt file on your desktop.

Open this file in Notepad and you will see a list of all the junctions with
their old XP location followed by the new Vista location in Brackets.

Examples:
Documents and Settings [C:\Users]
Application Data [C:\ProgramData]
SendTo [C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo]

This file will show you the junctions for the system as well as each user
account of the system.

Let me know if this answers your questions or if you need more help.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


weary said:
Ronnie,

What is the fix? I need to change contents of User folders? How do I do
that?

Do you have any links to "fix" this? If I can not edit my folder
contents, what use is my computer? I know that sounds facitious(sp?), but
I
dont' get it.

thanks,
Karen
 
R

Ronnie Vernon MVP

Weary

I replied to you in another thread, but lets use this one instead. I will
answer this "inline", so just keep scrolling.
First off. Thanks for trying to help me. In a nutshell:
This has nothing to do with WIndows XP. Nothing to do with files from
WIndows XP. Nothing to do with copying files from any other computer. It
is
about using my computer, for something other than watching movie
DVDs(which
is all I am able to do up to this point because of issues with VISTA).

I have tried to explain the new folder setup in Vista but it seems like I
did not do this very well.

I think what you need to do is open Windows Explorer and select
Organize/Folder and Search Option. Click the View Tab and select the option
"Do not show hidden files and folders", click Apply OK. Close Windows
Explorer.

Open Windows Explorer again and all of the junctions that we discussed
before will no longer be visible. All of the user folders that you can
actually use will be visible in the Users folder.
Here are just a few examples of things I can not do.
EXAMPLE 01. When I hit the "start" button, it presents this list-->
Default Programs
Microsoft Encarta Plus
Windows Update
Winzip
-----------
Programs
Documents
Settings
Search
Help and Support
Run
WIthout access to add/delete/edit the "Documents & Settings(User folder) I
can not change this list.

One other thing that I missed in our original thread is that you appear to
be using the old Classic Start Menu. This start menu is radically different
from the Vista start menu. If you want to take a look at the Vista start
menu, right click the Start Button and select Properties. Click the top
option for Start Menu there and click Apply/OK.
EXAMPLE 02.
Creating and saving a word doc becomes an ordeal. For example, I open
word
and start typeing stuff. I accidently hit "save" instead of "save as".
BIG PROBELEMS!
Where is my word document? It is in the "users" folder which I can not
access!

The default location to save Word documents is the C:\Users\your
username\Documents folder.
EXAMPLE 03:
When I hit "start" and then "programs" there is a list of about 30-40
folders/programs. I have no way of editing this useless list because I
can
not access the Documents & Settings(User) folder.

Regardless of which start menu you are using, if you right click the Start
Button and select the "Explore All Users" from the popup menu, a window will
open to the location where the Start Menu/Programs folder is located. This
is where you can make the changes.
EXAMPLE 04:
Because I can not edit the "Documents and Settings(user)" folder - I can
not
edit my "send to" (via a right click) with my mouse.

The default location for the SendTo folder is now
C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
 
G

Guest

Ronnie,
I appreciate that you are trying to help. I have made at least some
progress here.
Item 01. Edit menu. DONE. Thanks for your help.
Item 02. Change all default locations.(Partially Figured Out). I used word
to change the Word default, but it looks like I still need to change default
for Excel, Access, PowerPoint, TextPad, notepad, Adobe, Winzip, all my my
music, all my photos, all my video, etc. etc.
Item 03: Edit programs list. DONE. Thanks for your help.
Item 04: Edit the "send to" list (originally stated below)

thanks,
weary
///////////////////
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top