Administrator doesn't seem to give me everything

Y

Yonsei Park

I am running Windows XP Media Center edition SP2 and having an issue I am
hoping someone might be able to assist with. I am currently logged in as
the administrator and there are files and folders that I can't access or
execute. That seems very odd since the admin profile should be god, right?
When I click on properties, the read only is checked so I un-check the file,
click apply and then nothing happens so I am very confused.
Can anyone offer some suggestions?

Cheers,
 
G

Guest

What folders or file?

Are these user created, application created or Windows created?

If a user installs an application, it is possible that due to the nature and
style of the application, that it is not accesible to other users or
administrator.
 
D

Dave

no, the administrator is not 'god'. users can create files and make them so
that the administrator does not have read or execute permission on them. by
default each user's profile is set this way so that only the user has access
to it.

the administrator does have the power to 'take ownership' of anything
though, in doing this the file owner is changed to the administrator who
then can do anything they want with the file. doing this may prevent the
original owner from using that file again unless the administrator gives
them back ownership or changes protections so that a group the user is in
can access it.
 
R

Robert Moir

Yonsei said:
I am running Windows XP Media Center edition SP2 and having an issue
I am hoping someone might be able to assist with. I am currently
logged in as the administrator and there are files and folders that I
can't access or execute. That seems very odd since the admin profile
should be god, right?

It seems entirely normal to me, as the Admin account is not "god".

Check the help files for taking ownership of files and folders if you really
want to look inside these objects.

--
 
Y

Yonsei Park

Thanks for all the responses, I think there is a bigger issue that might be
the root cause.
I have tried as the administrator to start the Security Center service and I
can't seem to run it and get a message that says that service has a
dependency that has been marked for deletion! However, that just doesn't
seem to make sense. Thoughts? Also, the folders in question don't have a
Security tab under the properties/advanced window so I can't take ownership.
Is there anything that might be installed such as SP2 or something from the
Windows XP CD that I need to install? I found the documents at Microsoft
that spoke to taking ownership but the security tab just isn't visible to
myself.
 
D

Dave

to get the security tab you have to disable 'simple file sharing' in the
explorer options.
 
G

Gene K

Another thing: Go to the Control Panel {or Windows Explorer)/Folder
Options/apply a check mark to "Show hidden files and folders", then remove
the check mark from "Hide protected operating system files,etc.".
 

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