New problem with win16 program

[Doug Sanders]

I have an old accounting program, Great Plains Profit that has worked fine
until now

I received a damaged profile message and had to reconstruct a user profile.

Everything else works, but Profit won't start, saying "The directory
C:\progra~1\profit is read-only and Profit can not run from a read-only
directory."

I reinstalled the software to no avail. Some thing's broke.

Any one have a clue on how to fix this?

Thanks,
Doug Sanders

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have an old accounting program, Great Plains Profit that has worked fine
until now

I received a damaged profile message and had to reconstruct a user profile.

Everything else works, but Profit won't start, saying "The directory
C:\progra~1\profit is read-only and Profit can not run from a read-only
directory."

I reinstalled the software to no avail. Some thing's broke.

Any one have a clue on how to fix this?

Thanks,
Doug Sanders

Try giving everyone full access to this folder. If unsure how it's done,
click Start / Help, then search for "Permissions".

 

[Doug Sanders]

Interesting...

The folder was marked as 'Read Only' in the properties. I changed it, clsed
the folder, reopened it and it's 'Read Only' again.

I must not be digging deep enough here.

Also, I copied the program files into a new directory in the root (C and
it gives me the same message.

I'll keep trying to change the attributes and see if that corrects the
problems.

Thanks,
Doug

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The "read-only" attribute is ignored for folders under
Windows. It plays no role. You must concentrate not
on the attributes but on the NTFS permissions. This is
a completely independent mechanism, described
comprehensively in the Win2000 help files.

 

[Doug Sanders]

This is on a laptop with a Fat32 drive, not NTFS.

I usually have most laptops running FAT32 when security is not an issue.

Doug

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If this is a FAT32 partition then NTFS permissions do not
apply. However, read-only attributes at a file level still apply.

Maybe your legacy program is getting too smart for its own
good, getting hung up on an attribute that is irrelevant and
ignored by Windows. You could try this:
- Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
- Try to remove the read-only attribute for this folder with attrib.exe.

As an alternative you could do this:
- Rename c:\Program Files\Profile to Profile.bad
- Create a new folder c:\Program Files\Profile
- Check that its read-only attribute is NOT set.
- Copy all files from the old folder to the new folder.
- Check the folder attribute once more.

 

[Stan Weiss]

Why is using Attrib in a W2K command prompt a problem? I have done this
for my brother who had the same problem with an old DOS application.
Stan

 

[Doug Sanders]

I'll try these suggestions and let the group know how it woks out.

Thanks to all.

Doug Sanders