Administrator cannot access other other users My Documents

[Allan C]

On a XP PRO sp2 computer I have created a user 'allan' who is in the
administrator's group.
When I login as administrator and use Explore to access the 'my documents'
of user 'allan' a message pops up 'Is not accessible. Access is denied'.
Shouldn't the administrator be able to access * every * users 'my
documents'.

 

[Juan]

Logon with the user account and go to 'allan's profile folder in
C:\Documents and Settings\allan\properties\Sharing... and remove the check
mark from 'Make this folder private'.

 

[Allan C]

Yes, I realize that 'allan' can do that if he so chooses.
However, isn't user 'administrator' supposed to have * total * access to
* everything * without 'allan' having to allow it?
Otherwise, it seems to partially defeat the purpose of the user
'administrator' as files can be hidden from him.

Am I missing a basic concept somewhere?

 

[Juan]

That's a feature of the NTFS file system a user can make his profile folder
private and the administrator will not be able to access his files. To
achieve your purpose, you'd have to use the FAT32 file system but that would
require a reinstallation. You can convert the file system from FAT32 to
NTFS but not viceversa.

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[Colin Nash [MVP]]

Yes, I realize that 'allan' can do that if he so chooses.
However, isn't user 'administrator' supposed to have * total * access to
* everything * without 'allan' having to allow it?
Otherwise, it seems to partially defeat the purpose of the user
'administrator' as files can be hidden from him.

Am I missing a basic concept somewhere?

As an administrator, yes you can override permissions on any folder. See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&sd=tech But
until you do so, you are limited to what permissions are assigned.

The "make my folder private" thing is intended mainly for home use where
most users are probably administrators anyway (unfortunately, a lot of apps
and games require this), and just want to casually keep other people out of
their docs.

 

[Allan C]

Yes, it would make sense to me that the * user administrator * would have
capabilities over and above those users in the
* administrators group *.

 

[Colin Nash [MVP]]

Yes, it would make sense to me that the * user administrator * would
have
capabilities over and above those users in the
* administrators group *.

--

Regards,

Allan C

Actually in this case, it doesn't matter. Any member of the administrators
group can take ownership+reset permissions.