Need to access "Program Files" folder!

[MrBill]

I've used Vista all of 1 day now! I need to be able to read and write
files to my "Program Files" folder but Vista won't allow me to do
this. The answer wasn't in the last 1,000 posts here . . . can anyone
help?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Steve Easton]

You can't write to "Program Files" in Vista.
You need to write to UserName\Application Data\Program-name

 

[P. Di Stolfo]

Hello,

if you want to set your permission to the Program Files folder, right-click
the folder, select "Properties" -> tab "Security" -> "Advanced" -> tab
"Owner" -> select your User name, check "Replace owner on subcontainers..."
and click "Apply".
Re-open the Security tab and click "Edit..." and set full control for
Administrator and your user account and System.

Hope this works.

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo

 

[James Matthews]

Run the program with admin rights!

 

[MrBill]

How do I do that? Note - newbie at the keyboard!

 

[P. Di Stolfo]

Hello,
to run a program with Administrator rights, right-click the file, and click
"Run as Administrator"

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo

 

[MrBill]

Actually, what I'd like is unlimited access to every file, folder, and
program on my PC. Would this be all Administrator rights? And is
there an easy way to set this up?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[NotMe]

Not in Vista, that is one of the 'security' improvements...

 

[KristleBawl]

No, no easy way to do it in Vista. It was designed to prevent the user (like
me) or something else (like spyware) from messing around in files and
folders that control how things work.

All too often, people have moved/deleted a file that looks useless, then
'all of a sudden' something didn't work. Because they couldn't remember all
the files that were changed, they ended up having to reinstall everything,
starting with Windows.

If critical files cannot be accessed with the keyboard, then they probably
can't be alterred by a trojan or worm, either. If you have to authorize a
program to install, then nothin bad will install, either, just because you
visited a hacked website.

Vista is an attempt at a more secure computer.

How to use User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922708/en-us

HOW TO: Enable the build-in Administrator account in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555910/en-us

KB

in message news:[email protected]...

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Actually, what I'd like is unlimited access to every file, folder, and
program on my PC. Would this be all Administrator rights? And is

It's like saying "I know nothing about electronics, but I'd like to be able
to disassemble my TV and take out every single transistor, capacitor and
resistor, one by one" The software in a modern operating system (whether
Vista, Linux, Mac OS X, or Solaris) is extremely complex - way more complex
than your car, TV, or stereo.

For many years, Windows *did* allow every user total access to every file
and folder. And that's what gave us the security nightmare of viruses,
trajans, spybots, rootkits and identity theft, which we see today. So Vista
tries to deliberately stop you from accessing program files - it's atually a
Good Thing.

As the other guys advised, run your app "As administrator", or else you can
grant yourself rights to individual files and folders under Program Files,
on a case-by-case basis if you realy need to.

Hope it helps
Andrew

 

[Not Me]

I have actually started installing programs somewhere other than Program
Files just for that reason.
I do distributed computing for medical research (Cancer, AIDS, MS, etc) at
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org
The software was created by Berkeley (BOINC-Berkeley Open Ifrastructure for
Networked Computing).
http://boinc.berkeley.edu
If installed in Program files, it won't work; as it can not write the
results because the Program Files folder is protected.
AOL tried to protect everyone from themselves...look how well everyone took
to that.
I don't see that Vista is any different,
I am just amazed that the same geeks who screamed bloody murder about AOHELL
software accept/defend the stupidity because it was done by MS "in the name
of security".