Permissions to view Pictures

[MikesPT]

After installing Vista Home Premium, I am unable to view any pictures in my
pictures folder. I cannot even use a background picture. The folder is set to
READ ONLY and I cannot change it. When I try to view a picture, the window
says,"PHOTO GALLERY CAN'T OPEN THIS PICTURE BECAUSE YOU DO NOT HAVE
PERMISSION TO ACCESS THE FILE LOCATION"
I am working thru Windows Explorer and even the background setting page
won't let me install a background picture on my desktop.
It happens all the time. I have tried everything in the help and support
section, but nothing lets me get past that notice.
This is my computer and no one else uses it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Mr. Arnold]

After installing Vista Home Premium, I am unable to view any pictures in
my
pictures folder. I cannot even use a background picture. The folder is set
to
READ ONLY and I cannot change it. When I try to view a picture, the window
says,"PHOTO GALLERY CAN'T OPEN THIS PICTURE BECAUSE YOU DO NOT HAVE
PERMISSION TO ACCESS THE FILE LOCATION"
I am working thru Windows Explorer and even the background setting page
won't let me install a background picture on my desktop.
It happens all the time. I have tried everything in the help and support
section, but nothing lets me get past that notice.
This is my computer and no one else uses it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well, you need to change your user account permission on the folder to the
permissions your account needs. Also another user account on the folder such
as the Everyone group account can override all other account permissions on
a folder or a file, even override your admin user account permissions. So if
I were you, I would start looking a what permissions an account has on a
file or folder to see who has what permissions. And rights at the folder
level will supersede rights on a file in the folder.

 

[Michael Walraven]

What is the full path you are using to get to your pictures?
(for me it is
c:\users\walraven\pictures
)

the attribute 'READ ONLY' does not apply to folders, note that the square is
filled in, it is not empty or checked.

Michael
Vista Home premium

 

[MikesPT]

That is the exact path. I did manage to fix my problem, but It had something
to do with sharing. I don't understand the problem, but it worked. I can now
view my pictures. It may have been something else, but I'm not sure. I had
checked all the permissions and I'm the only one who uses the computer. All
these settings were set to the ALLOW on everything.

Thank you for your response.

 

[uvbogden]

Take Ownership/Permissions
Even running as Administrator may leave you without permissions to modify
some files or folders, even ones that you have downloaded and installed. To
access or modify (copy, delete, rename) files or folders you can take
Ownership of (in your Username) and grant yourself Full Control permissions
of the files or folders in question described in the following tutorial.

To avoid having to do this individually for hundreds of files, Take
Ownership of large branches like Program Files folder, Users folder, and
Windows folder and grant yourself Full Control of the "folder, all subfolders
and files" contained in the folder. In the case of Program Files, you would
have full access to all your programs. In the case of Users folder, you
would have full access to your Music, Pictures, Videos, Documents, etc. In
the case of Windows, you would have full access to all Windows features.

Windows Explorer Run As Administrator
Another way to gain access to modify files and folders includes going to the
Start button, typing in Windows Explorer, right-clicking on this and
selecting Run As Administrator. You should then have "elevated privileges"
to do whatever you wish to files in Windows Explorer.

Unlocker Program
There is also a program called Unlocker that you can use to gain access to
modify files and folders.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

 

[alexB]

Sorry to contravene but this does not work in every case and I want to use
this chance to perhaps nail it down once and for all, why?

There are folders, apparently systems related that I cannot delete under any
circumstances UNLESS I open cmd prompt (run as administrator) and delete
files (in each and every folder) as del *.* then answering yes. This is the
only thing that works. I will give you two idiotic examples that cost me at
least two days of work.

I need to reformat an old external HDD with FAT32 into NTFS. I've had it for
years since the days of Win2K. When I tried to format it I realized that
there was an obscure folder I've never noticed with some hotfixes that won't
budge. I gave myself all the permissions you are talking about and I have
done it already hundred of times with my SQL Serve rand other software.
Nothing worked. I finally got tired of it and decided to turn UAC off, I
did, the machine said it would need to restart and I never saw my Vista
again. I can get into it only in safe mode. this is a totally different
story. I have a few vistas in my shop.

The other example is this. I downloaded a demo. It was MagicDisk to unlock
ISO files. It completely enslaved my machine and I tried to uninstall it.
There was no way I could delete the folders, no way. I had to restore the
system to an earlier point and I lost many days of work. I am talking here
about the same machine that is in trouble because of my turning UAC, so it
is double trouble.

My question is: how come, I, and administrator, who installed this Vista
from MSDN DVD (it is not OEM) cannot delete those folders?

The folders I mentioned first were systems folders but very old. I
inadvertently copied them from XP or Win2K partition years ago. I had no
idea that it would lead to trouble like this.

Where is the key, perhaps in the registry, that protects those files,
especially the malware?

I had a similar experience with DAEMON Tools on the same machine and also
had hard time getting rid of them.

Thanks.

 

[uvbogden]

If you take Ownership in your username, uncheck "include inherited
permissions", grant yourself Full Control of "folder, subfolders, and files",
you will be able to access most files. The Unlocker program can help provide
access to some difficult files. Sometimes you have to get
permissions/ownership on each file in a folder to be able to access it.

But, as you say, there are some files (most often system files) that nobody
can access. I think an Administrator user should have easy access to all
files and folders without exception, even for critical system files. MSFT
obviously disagrees. I have been able to delete some of these difficult
files in a command prompt window with "Run As Administrator" elevated
privileges. See link below for details in tutorial.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66879-command-prompt.html