ACCESS DENIED

C

clive skinner

i have recently tried to access Documents and Settings but am getting
ACCESS DENIED for some reason yet i have done NOTHING to change my admin
rights yet there seems to be an option for EVERYONE to access it but
admin is not allowed to and it wont let me configure it that way.

HELP


i have deleted EVERYONE from the properties and tried to revert to normal
ADMIN user rights but it wont let me view docs and setts folder at all
 
G

Gordon

clive skinner said:
i have recently tried to access Documents and Settings but am getting
ACCESS DENIED for some reason yet i have done NOTHING to change my admin
rights yet there seems to be an option for EVERYONE to access it but
admin is not allowed to and it wont let me configure it that way.


"Documents and Settings" is NOT a folder. it's a Junction point.
That's why you can't access it. Why are you even trying? Your data is held
at C:\Users\{Your account}\Documents
Windows Vista Junction Points:
http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm
 
M

Malke

clive said:
i have recently tried to access Documents and Settings but am getting
ACCESS DENIED for some reason yet i have done NOTHING to change my admin
rights yet there seems to be an option for EVERYONE to access it but
admin is not allowed to and it wont let me configure it that way.

HELP


i have deleted EVERYONE from the properties and tried to revert to
normal
ADMIN user rights but it wont let me view docs and setts folder at all

Gordon has answered you here and I also answered the post you made in
another newsgroup. Next time please crosspost instead of multiposting like
this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm - multiposting

Malke
 
S

Scott Seligman

Gordon said:
"Documents and Settings" is NOT a folder. it's a Junction point. That's
why you can't access it. Why are you even trying? Your data is held
at C:\Users\{Your account}\Documents Windows Vista Junction Points:
http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm

Not that it really matters, but just because something is a junction
point doesn't mean you can't access it (as that article suggests).
"Documents and Settings" is just a junction point that has user access
turned off. There can be other junction points that a user can
access.
 
P

Paul Adare

Gordon has answered you here

Answered perhaps, but not answered with a technically correct answer as
Scott points out, and I see the same technically incorrect answer over and
over again, even from MVPs.
The system generated junction points in Vista (and Windows 7) are not
inaccessible because of the fact that they are junction points, they are
inaccessible because they contain a DENY access control entry (ACE) for the
Everyone group in their discretionary access control list (DACL).

Junction points are not inherently inaccessible.
 
G

Gordon

Scott Seligman said:
Not that it really matters, but just because something is a junction
point doesn't mean you can't access it (as that article suggests).
"Documents and Settings" is just a junction point that has user access
turned off. There can be other junction points that a user can
access.

But why would you want to? There's nothing in it!!!
 
S

Scott Seligman

Gordon said:
But why would you want to? There's nothing in it!!!

Huh? Junctions can absolutely point to data. And in the case of
Documents and Settings junction, it points to the Users folder. If
you removed the restriction preventing you from opening it, you'd have
a longer path name that points to your user data.
 
G

Gordon

Scott Seligman said:
Huh? Junctions can absolutely point to data. And in the case of
Documents and Settings junction, it points to the Users folder. If
you removed the restriction preventing you from opening it, you'd have
a longer path name that points to your user data.


That's the nub - look up a dictionary definition of "POINTS" as opposed to
"CONTAINS"......
 
D

Drezpc

Make sure the account you are using is part of the local administrators
group on the computer in question. If is not, add it to the local admin
group, then local off and back on this will update the ACL and ACE
permissions and you will now have access to the C:\users location. You will
receive a UAC (unless you turned it off) message, just press continue and
you'll have access.
 
G

Gordon

Drezpc said:
Make sure the account you are using is part of the local administrators
group on the computer in question. If is not, add it to the local admin
group, then local off and back on this will update the ACL and ACE
permissions and you will now have access to the C:\users location. You
will
receive a UAC (unless you turned it off) message, just press continue and
you'll have access.

<sigh> In Vista "Documents and Settings" is a JUNCTION POINT - it
doesn't contain anything that the OP could a) understand or b) do
anything with. It's a POINTER to the Vista folder of C:\Users\{account
name}\Documents, for the use of legacy applications that use the XP
folder designation.
If you have had experience with *nix then it's like a symbolic link.

Windows Vista Junction Points:

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm
 
R

random.coder

<sigh> In  Vista "Documents and Settings" is a JUNCTION POINT - it
doesn't contain anything that the OP could a) understand or b) do
anything with. It's a POINTER to the Vista folder of C:\Users\{account
name}\Documents

Vista's "Documents and Settings" folder points to C:\Users. There is
another junction inside of each user folder, "My Documents" that
points to "Documents"
 
S

Sam Hobbs

Gordon said:
<sigh> In Vista "Documents and Settings" is a JUNCTION POINT - it doesn't
contain anything that the OP could a) understand or b) do anything with.
It's a POINTER to the Vista folder of C:\Users\{account name}\Documents,
for the use of legacy applications that use the XP folder designation.
If you have had experience with *nix then it's like a symbolic link.

Windows Vista Junction Points:

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm

You are implying that there is nothing in C:\Users\{account name}\Documents
that a user could a) understand or b) do anything with.

Microsoft should either not show the Documents and Settings directory (the
junction point that looks like a directory) or allow access to it. The way
it is done is clearly extremely confusing.

Programs written the way Microsoft recommends would not be affected by the
change. The following VBScript produces "C:\Users\Sam\Documents" for me.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WScript.Echo WshShell.SpecialFolders("MyDocuments")

How would a "legacy application" use "Documents and Settings"? The following
VBScript (a slightly modified version of the sample in the FolderItems.Items
documentation) reports that there are 0 items in my "My Documents" folder.

fnFolderObjectItemsVB "C:\Documents and Settings\Sam\My Documents"

function fnFolderObjectItemsVB(foldername)
dim objShell
dim objFolder
set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
set objFolder = objShell.NameSpace(foldername)
if (not objFolder is nothing) then
dim objFolderItems
WScript.Echo objFolder.title
set objFolderItems = objFolder.Items
if (not objFolderItems Is Nothing) then
WScript.Echo objFolderItems.Count
end if
set objFolderItem = nothing
end if
set objFolder = nothing
set objShell = nothing
end function
 
S

Scott Seligman

Sam Hobbs said:
Microsoft should either not show the Documents and Settings directory
(the junction point that looks like a directory)

These junction points created for backwards compatibility are hidden by
default, so a user generally has to look for hidden files to see them in
the first place.
or allow access to it. The way it is done is clearly extremely
confusing.

While I agree, I'd guess MS did a usability study on leaving them
visible and that confused users more (Why are there two copies of all my
documents in two different folders?, etc)

I am curious how many applications break without these junction points.
I'm not curious enough, however, to delete the junction points on my
machine and see what blows up.
 
S

Sam Hobbs

Scott Seligman said:
I am curious how many applications break without these junction points.
I'm not curious enough, however, to delete the junction points on my
machine and see what blows up.


Yes.
 

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