Assigning permissions

[Denis]

I am logged in as an administrator but when I try to save a file to a
particular folder I am told "You don't have permission to save in this
location" and to contact the administrator to obtain permission.

I am the only user on this machine and would like to be able to save files
wherever I want but don't know how to give myself permission to do so. I've
looked at Permissions under help but can't find anything there to say how
permission is granted to a user.

Would appreciate your help.

Denis

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

You can't just save files anywhere in the system, there locations in the
System that are turned off from access by default. This is for security
reasons and you shouldn't even be wanting to Save files in System32 for
example. Use the default Content folders such as Documents, Pictures, Music,
Videos, Downloads and others or create your own person folders in one of
these designated locations.

 

[Malke]

I am logged in as an administrator but when I try to save a file to a
particular folder I am told "You don't have permission to save in this
location" and to contact the administrator to obtain permission.

I am the only user on this machine and would like to be able to save
files wherever I want but don't know how to give myself permission to do
so. I've looked at Permissions under help but can't find anything there
to say how permission is granted to a user.

Tell us where you are trying to save the file. Most problems of this
sort occur because the user is trying to write to a protected area of
the operating system such as Programs, Windows, etc.


Malke

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

But its not appropriate to encourage in saving in locations Microsoft has
designated as protected by the operating system. Yes, its the users system
and they should be free to do whatever they want with it, but you ultimately
putting OS in a compromising situation by taking ownership of certain
locations or turning of UAC. Its best the OP use the Personal folders that
is created within his or her account.

We need to have some basic principles.

 

[Denis]

I have a dual boot machine with XP and Vista. I now use the Vista
installation as my main machine but occasionally need to save files to a
folder in the Program Files folder in the XP installation. For some reason
Vista treats this as a restricted location whereas XP had no objection to
files being saved there.

I can get round the problem by first saving the file in Documents and then
cutting and pasting it to the folder I want it to be in (Vista does not
object to this) but would prefer to save it directly to the folder in the
first place.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

The Program Files folder stores your installed applications, why would you
want to save personal files there? The Public Documents folder is more
appropriate for this, if you need to have files stored on the XP partition,
save them in the Shared Documents folder on the XP partition (x:\Documents
and Settings\All Users\Documents

I understand that you might want to keep the files private if you have
multiple users on both installations, but its better this way.

 

[Denis]

I appreciate what you are saying regarding saving personal files to Shared
Documents folder etc.

The reason I need to save files in XP\Program Files folder is that I had
installed a program when I was using XP which stored files created by the
program within a subfolder in Program Files and I need to add files to this
folder.

There is a work around so its not critical, but it would be nice to be able
to cut out the extra steps involved in saving the file first in Documents
and then cutting and pasting it to Program Files folder.

 

[Denis]

I have a dual boot machine with XP and Vista. I now use the Vista
installation as my main machine but occasionally need to save files to a
folder in the Program Files folder in the XP installation. For some reason
Vista treats this as a restricted location whereas XP had no objection to
files being saved there.

I can get round the problem by first saving the file in Documents and then
cutting and pasting it to the folder I want it to be in (Vista does not
object to this) but would prefer to save it directly to the folder in the
first place.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Ahh, I see, I know these types of programs, they store files you create with
them in folder located with their Program Files directory. This is so old
school, most apps use to save this way when Windows never had a designated
Documents folder and most still do to this day like QuarkXpress and AutoCAD.
Isn't there an option in the program to point the target directory for saved
files to Documents?

 

[Michael Walraven]

I think you will find that it is NOT actually going where you think it is
when being saved by Vista. It is probably being saved in an aliased location
specific to the user.

I haven't seen where you said what the actual folder being used is but if
you notice on the tool bar when you have this directory shown you might see
a button for 'compatibility files' (or something like that). If you click on
that and then select properties on a file you will see that the file is
actually located in an app data area in /user/your
name/appdata/local/virtualstore/

Michael
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