Graphical NTFS permission tool?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter C. Chapin
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P

Peter C. Chapin

I'm using XP home edition. My file system is NTFS. In Win2K I was able to
edit the access control lists associated with my files/folders using Explorer
(right click on the file/folder and select 'Properties' and then select the
'Security' tab). However, under my XP there does not appear to be a
'Security' option on a file/folder's property sheet.

I am able to use the command line tool CACLS.EXE to manipulate file
permissions to a degree. However, CACLS doesn't appear to be as flexible as
the Win2K explorer method and I miss some of the options I had before. Is
there a way to activate that full functionality again? Do I need to get some
sort of third party program?

Peter
 
The Security tab is visible in "Safe Mode" in XP Home (tap f8 when
booting up)
Click to expand...

Are you saying that with a stock XP system I can't change file permissions
graphically unless I boot in safe mode? That seems nuts to me. (I'm not
saying you are wrong here...)

Peter
 
Yes because you are using XP Home. In XP Pro it's available from an
admin account in normal startup mode.
 
To make the security tab visible in normal mode you could try this

Set a restore point

Install this utility (via the x86 (Intel) Link)... (right-click it and
choose "save target as...")

http://tinyurl.com/35uev


Click on the executable to extract the files
Right-click the setup.inf file and choose Install
May need to reboot

Security tab should hopefully then be visible

Jon
 
Yes because you are using XP Home. In XP Pro it's available from an
admin account in normal startup mode.
Click to expand...

Okay, but this just strikes me as odd beyond words. Ordinary users should
be able to change permissions on their files (assuming they have the
appropriate permissions to do so, of course). I mean... anyone on my
current system can use CACLS.EXE to modify file permissions. My objection
to CACLS is that it isn't (doesn't appear to be) flexible enough to suit
my needs.

Surely someone has written a third party application to facilitate
manipulating file permissions? Editing such permissions is not really
something I should have reboot my system to do! I looked around a bit for
such a program on Microsoft's site and on SysInternals but I had no luck.
I also looked at using Cygwin's chmod.exe but Cygwin tries to Unix-ify
things and that's not what I want here either. I want access to the non-
Unix aspects of NTFS's permission structure.

Peter
 
Peter said:
I'm using XP home edition. My file system is NTFS. In Win2K I was able to
edit the access control lists associated with my files/folders using Explorer
(right click on the file/folder and select 'Properties' and then select the
'Security' tab). However, under my XP there does not appear to be a
'Security' option on a file/folder's property sheet.

I am able to use the command line tool CACLS.EXE to manipulate file
permissions to a degree. However, CACLS doesn't appear to be as flexible as
the Win2K explorer method and I miss some of the options I had before. Is
there a way to activate that full functionality again?
Click to expand...

XP Home deliberately restricts to 'simple file sharing'. For fully
flexible access control you need Pro. (that is one of the things to
ensure corporate purchases are of Pro). You are limited to what you
can set up with cacls - log on in Safe Mode on the "Administrator"
account,. In that logon a MSoft guy recently said that Simple file
sharing is in any case turned off, allowing normal control through
Property sheets - I have not yet confirmed this.
 
Don't see why you think it's "odd beyond words". "Ordinary users",
whatever that means, can have access to this without going to safe mode
with XP Pro. Different product, different feature set.
 
Don't see why you think it's "odd beyond words". "Ordinary users",
whatever that means, can have access to this without going to safe mode
with XP Pro. Different product, different feature set.
Click to expand...

Well it just seems odd that an OS that supports a file system with
permissions doesn't provide the user with the tools to manipulate those
permissions (at least the tools that are provided seem quite limited). Are
you saying that XP Home Edition has been modified in the kernel itself (or
more accurately, perhaps, the NTFS file system driver) so that it simply does
not support the necessary API calls for fully accessing NTFS permissions?

Peter
 
I don't know how it is done. It's just a different feature set. If you
want that capability you need XP Pro. It's common in many software apps
where there are different versions of the same program that have greater
or lesser capabilities. There is nothing odd about that. The buyer
just needs to investigate what features are available and what they
need/want.
 
I don't know how it is done. It's just a different feature set. If you
want that capability you need XP Pro. It's common in many software apps
where there are different versions of the same program that have greater
or lesser capabilities. There is nothing odd about that. The buyer
just needs to investigate what features are available and what they
need/want.
Click to expand...

I did a little reading in the MSDN Library. It appears that the functions
required for manipulating file permissions with full generality are, in
fact, available in XP Home Edition. Thus it should be possible for a third
party to produce a program that allows such manipulations the same way as,
for example, third parties produce instant messaging programs, email
programs, or any other kind of application. The question I asked at the
beginning of this thread was: Where is there such a program? I'm not
really all that concerned about the Security tab in Explorer. The user
interface provided by Explorer is okay, but I could imagine better. One
supposes that a third party permission editor might be slicker anyway
(well... one would hope for that at least).

Peter
 
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