Favorites: Read Only?

[Nigel Molesworth]

I've got a problem with my Favorites. I have moved the folder to a
sub-folder of Documents. I can open them OK, but I get an error if I
try to save one. I've noticed that the folder is Read Only, but if I
clear the RO attribute it gets set again immediately.

Any thoughts?

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Nigel,

First, why would you move it?
Second, where did you move it to within Documents?

All folders have that "read only" marked, but it's not an attribute that
applies to folders, only to files. That isn't the problem. The inability to
save to it indicates a lack of write permissions. This may be inherited from
whatever folder you dropped it into.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Ray]

Nice name Rick , I have a comment and question. In previous OS's it was
advised to move user data off the partition that the OS resided on, for
safety reasons, such as ease of backup and having to reinstall the OS.
This is a bit more difficult in Vista because the User Folder can't be
moved. However, the Document folder can be, so I made a suggestion to
someone that wanted to do this, to put the other folders inside of Documents
and then move Documents to wherever they wanted.

My question to those of infinite knowledge is this, is keeping data away
from the OS a valid concern now that Vista doesn't do a (format drive and
install) type of install. So any user data should be as secure as having it
on another partition??

I can see the case for having one folder for backups though, I like to know
that everything I want backed up resides in one place, and I don't have to
go searching all over the hard drive for data folders.

Ray, also Rogers

 

[Chad Harris]

Nigel--

I would ask the first question in the most respectful sense. Why use
Favorites when it is much much faster and particularly with the Explorer
orgnization available in XP or Vista, to just sort folders in any way that
suits you, but name is particularly useful and in Vista then you click to
the right of the category, say name, and click "Group" and you'll get the
categories of files or folders alphebatized and grouped by letters like the
index of a book.

If I were going to use Favorites, and I know that a lot of users do, then
I'd search out Faves to Go on Kelly's site here under tweaks (I'm doing it
for you this time) http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp.htm (the vast
majority of them work in Vista)

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm and go to
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/favetogo.zip and simply unzip
this and you'll have your faves come up as hyperlinks on an IE page and the
access is much much quicker. PC Mag charges about $25 for this but here it
is.

Another excellent app for fast access to faves hyperlinked and all listed
that load immediately is called Favorites Home Page but it might take
searching a web archive to still find it. Faves to Go is pretty equivalent.

Good luck,

CH

However, to take the next step from Rick's comment, I think you'll have the
access you need if you simply right click the folder>properties>security tab
and highlight a user profile and click add>type in the next box the last
term in the file path of that particular profile> put checks in the boxes
for permissions you want>ok>close and reopen.

CH

 

[Nigel Molesworth]

First, why would you move it?

All my "My ..." folders are on a separate "M:" drive.

Second, where did you move it to within Documents?

As a direct sub-folder.

All folders have that "read only" marked, but it's not an attribute that
applies to folders, only to files.

Has this changed then?

The inability to save to it indicates a lack of write permissions.
This may be inherited from whatever folder you dropped it into.

I really now no idea what is happening, but it's working now!

 

[David A. Lessnau]

I, too, have this problem. I moved my Favorites folder (among others) to
D:\Data\Dave\Favorites and I started getting "Unable to create '<favorite
name>: Unspecified error" whenever I try to add a Favorite. Thinking it
had something to do with XP sharing the folder, I set up separate versions
for XP and Vista. Now, under Vista, my Favorites is under
"D:\Data\Dave\Vista Stuff\Favorites. I get the same error message. If I
save the web page as a shortcut to the Desktop, I can then move that
shortcut into the Favorites folder without trouble.

Right-clicking on the Favorites folder, selecting Properties | Security |
Advanced | Owner shows me ("Dave (Dave-PC\Dave") as being the current owner
(probably because I set up those folders under Vista). Interestingly, every
other folder, from the drive, itself, on down has some big honkin' SID (I
assume it's a SID -- it's something like "S-1-5...") as the current owner
(probably because I created all of that under XP long ago). I have no
trouble working with those folders. Should I try changing Current Owners
one way or the other? Or, is that looking for more trouble?

 

[Nigel Molesworth]

I really now no idea what is happening, but it's working now!

Sussed it, it's the bl**dy UAC, now off for ever!

 

[Nigel Molesworth]

I would ask the first question in the most respectful sense. Why use
Favorites when it is much much faster and particularly with the Explorer

I'm talking about IE.

 

[Daze N. Knights]

Oh, no! Something else that can't be done without leaving UAC turned off?

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Ray,

There is still a need to do backups as prevention against disaster (like a
failed drive or corrupt partition), I doubt that will ever change. With the
advent of true repair installations and their ability to recover an existing
installation, I don't see a huge need to move data from the user folders in
a standard system. There are exceptions to this, like multiboot systems, but
otherwise the data is as safe within the user folder as it is on another
drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

Could you open a command prompt, browse to d:\data\dave, and show the output
of this command:

icacls favorites


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Ray]

That's what I thought, but it's good to see someone tell me I'm not
mistaken. Thanks.

Ray Rogers

 

[Chad Harris]

So am I Nigel; most definitely so am I. I was trying to show you an
alternative method to Favorites for organizing the IE shortcuts that you
would select to be favorites that to me is a lot faster than using the
Favorites folder.

And you blew by my suggestion to try Faves to Go which is all about a
different format that makes your Favorites more retrievable and easier to
manage--that was in the zip.

Sorry I should have been clearer. I'm talking about doing the same thing
you want to do with favorites and the IE shortcuts you want to save as
favorites by taking each and every one and tucking them into appropriately
named folders and then organizing the folders alphabetically, or in some
cases ( a download folder for example by last modified) to make it easier to
find/and retrieve and work with your "favorites" without using Favorites.

One of the advantages but poorly advertised and explained features of
Windows Explorer folders in Vista is the ability to right click the icon at
the lower left of a folder>then using that context menu you bring up>

1) Go to the bottom of the folder on the left where if you create a new
folder on your desktop there will be a new folder icon in the lower left
corner or if like I always do you substitute one of thousands of favicons in
your favicon collection or one of thousands of icons native to Windows
Vista, it's .dlls, .exes, and its downloaded programs and zip files via the
Change or Modify Icon dialogue box. If you have named the folder it will
have the name of the folder. If you have subbed an icon for the folder,
that icon will be there.

2) Right click that folder or icon and in the categories listed there that
look like this:

Sort By
Group By
Stack By

Name
Date Modified
Type
Size
Ascending
Descending

More

Click MORE and you will have the opportunity to customize and choose and
TAILOR WHICH OF OVER 120 column headings you want to confer on whichever
view you then choose and whichever way you choose to sort, group, or stack.

The way I do it because it works for me and is analagous to the Show in
Groups that was brought in during Windows XP is to go up to name where y ou
can choose

Sort
Group
Stack by Name

and I choose Stck by Name because this is analagous to the bold headings of
an index in a book except that they are headings now in Vista and I would
have made them more bold. By name means they will be grouped alphabetically
and then for the column headings I want, I do what I described above.

For my downloads folder, I choose Sort by "Date Modified" or I just do that
after a download so that I can easily locate many of the non-ituitively
named downloads with characters and less obvious names on them.

CH

 

[Nigel Molesworth]

Sorry I should have been clearer. I'm talking about doing the same thing
you want to do with favorites and the IE shortcuts you want to save as
favorites by taking each and every one and tucking them into appropriately
named folders and then organizing the folders alphabetically

I'm not sure I follow you.

My Favorites folder is just like any other, with appropriate structure
and subfolders, where the shortcut files are stored.

 

[Chad Harris]

Nigel--

I was merely proposing that when you get to a certain number of favorites,
on a machine that is fast and stays fast because you do what it takes to
keep it that way, given the functionality of Favorites in Windows, I think
it's faster to organize anything you would save as a "favorite" another way.

I use Explorer folders or just call them folders, and when I want to save an
IE page, or I want to save or make a folder I keep them all in major
folders. I don't use Favorites per se. I think it's much faster, and
considerably more retrivable especially when they accumulate over the years.

It works for me but may not be your cup of tea. I find it useful, and it
helps me retrieve a link or an MSKB fast on a forum.

I also again offered you to free apps that you may want to look at that
allow the favorites to show up as hyperlinks on an IE page and you can tweak
it and color the background and the links--I think it takes Favorites to a
better level.

You could set up an explorer folder via my instructions and see if it worked
for you. Also when I see an IE page, that'd be IE7 the one in Vista, or
Firefox, or a folder I want to save, or for that matter an app that I want
in a certain folder, I just left click drag the small "e" or small folder
icon from the IE address bar (with an IE page) or the upper left hand corner
of the folder and I find this a lot faster than dealing with Favorites.

Good luck,

CH

 

[David A. Lessnau]

Sorry it took so long to reply. I just got the innards for a new computer
and reinstalled everything. Still have the same problem with Favorites,
though. I no longer have a dual boot XP/Vista system: just Vista. I
slightly modified my Data folder to get rid of my name, plus I moved a few
directories around. Anyway, here's the result of that command:

"D:\Data>icacls favorites
favorites BUILTIN\AdministratorsI)(F)
BUILTIN\AdministratorsI)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMI)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMI)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated UsersI)(M)
NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated UsersI)(OI)(CI)(IO)(M)
BUILTIN\UsersI)(RX)
BUILTIN\UsersI)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files"

If you could decode that into something approaching English, I'd appreciate
it .

Anyway, as I copied all my data back from its resting place on my external
drive, I made sure all the folders came across with me as the owner (they
did -- except for the D: drive, itself, which is owned by SYSTEM).

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Looks like the problem is that for some reason the system did not properly
set the integrity level of the new favorites folder to low (this is required
so that Internet Explorer running in protected mode can write to the
folder).

You can fix it like this:

- Open an admin command prompt (right-click Command Prompt and click Run As
Administrator)
- Browse to the folder that contains your favorites folder
- Type: icacls favorites /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low

Things should work now

The permissions on your favorites folder indicate that the system and all
admins have full control over the folder and anything it contains, and any
authenticated user (including those authenticated over a network) have
read/write/modify/execute permissions (this is just short of full control -
the only thing they can't do is change permissions and take control of the
file).

Just looking at these permissions, things should work fine. However, Vista
adds a new concept called integrity. Every object that has permissions also
specifies what "class" of applications can modify it - if an application
does not meet or exceed this class, then it cannot modify the file,
regardless of what the permissions on the file say.

By default, all files/folders on your computer can be modified by "Medium"
or higher applications. Also by default, all programs run at Medium or
higher integirty.

Internet Explorer, running in Protected Mode, however, runs at Low
integrity. This is one of the ways Internet Explorer protected mode protects
your computer. IE *cannot* modify any data on your computer unless it is
tagged as being accessible to low integrity processes (or it goes thru a
special process that displays a security warning asking you for consent). In
this way, if an attacker takes control over IE, they cannot use it to
overwrite, delete, or modify most of your data.


- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

 

[Jimmy Brush]

By default, all files/folders on your computer can be modified by "Medium"

or higher applications. Also by default, all programs run at Medium or
higher integirty.

Eh, this should say "By default, MOST files/folders ..." and "MOST programs
run at". Obviously, the system defines certain areas that are accessible to
Low-integirty apps (such as internet explorer protected mode).

Also, here's how applications map to integrity levels:

IE Protected Mode (and hopefully other internet-facing third party apps
eventually): Low

Normal apps: Medium

Applications that run with admin powers (either by asking you for permission
automatically or by you right-clicking them and clicking
run-as-administrator): High

System services: System


- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[David A. Lessnau]

That fixed it. Thanks. I'd guess that the integrity level of the folder
was set to Medium simply because I created that Favorites folder myself as a
normal folder and them pointed Vista at it later (though, you'd think that
along with changing the icon it would change the integrity level). Most of
my Favorites were probably put in there before I changed the location, so
that's why it worked initially. That also explains why I could copy the
locations in from the Desktop myself after IE couldn't do it (though a
better error message than "unknown error" or whatever it was would have
helped narrow this down).

Once again, thanks.

 

[Guest]

That fixed it. Thanks.

You're welcome

I'd guess that the integrity level of the folder
was set to Medium simply because I created that Favorites folder myself as a
normal folder and them pointed Vista at it later (though, you'd think that
along with changing the icon it would change the integrity level).

May I ask how you told Vista to use the other folder? When I tested this
myself, Vista correctly applied the Low integrity flag to the folder (which
had medium integrity before I changed the special folder location).

I changed the location of favorities by right-clicking the special folder
inside my user profile folder, clicking properties, clicking the location
tab, and then changing the location. It then asked me if I wanted to copy my
favorities to the new folder, and I said yes. Did you do something different?



- JB