Programs, Folders & Files Unavailable

U

uvbogden

Even running as Administrator on your computer may leave you without
permissions to access some programs or modify (i.e. copy, move, rename,
delete) some files or folders, even ones that you have downloaded and
installed personally. Other users on your computer may also find that they
do not have access to some programs, folders or files that they need to
access. To ensure access to programs or to modify files or folders you need
to take Ownership of (in your Username) and grant yourself Full Control
permissions of the files or folders in question described in the following
tutorial.

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

In order to grant yourself and other users unchallenged permissions to
access programs, files and folders, you may need to remove users with
“inherited rights†and replace them with users with “uninherited rightsâ€.
Right-click on the program, file or folder and select Properties, then
Security tab, then select Advanced, then Edit, then uncheck “Include
inherited permissions from the objects parentâ€, then choose Remove from the
pop-up box. Then click Add, Advanced, Find Now, select the user names you
want to have access to the program, click OK, then OK, then check the
permissions you want to give to each user, then OK, then Apply, then OK, OK,
OK.

To avoid having to do this individually for hundreds of files, take
Ownership of large branch folders like Program Files folder, Users folder, or
Windows folder, and grant yourself Full Control (and selected permissions to
other users who want to have access) of the “folder, all subfolders, and all
files†contained in the folder. In the case of Program Files, you and
designated other users would have 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 folder you would have full access to
your OS, including Windows Installer. These folders are all major branches of
the drive where your operating system (OS) is installed, usually your C
drive, which can be accessed on your Desktop by clicking on Computer->C:\.

Once the desired Ownership has been taken and appropriate Permissions have
been granted as uninherited rights, you can make programs, files and folders
available to other users by Sharing. Right click on the drive, folder,
program.exe file, or file you wish to share, select Sharing tab, select
Advanced Sharing, then check Share This. You should also go to Control
Panel->Network & Sharing->Sharing & Discovery and make sure sharing settings
are On for those categories you wish to share.

For some programs, you will also want to right-click on the shortcut, select
Properties, then under Shortcut tab click on Advanced, then check Run As
Administrator to elevate privileges for running that program. Once you have
taken Ownership and have Full Control permissions, other users have been
granted access Permissions, the appropriate folders are Shared with other
users, and some programs are set to Run As Administrator, all users should
have access to the needed programs, folders or files.

I challenge MSFT to make it easier than pulling teeth for a user to access
programs, folders and files. If you agree, please vote so on the web version
of this newsgroup. If you disagree please post why. If you have a better
suggestion for MSFT, please post for all to see.



----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...06&dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.security
 
J

Jesper

Please do not follow the advice in this post.

If you do you will make your system unsupportable, disable most of the
security controls in the OS, and probably build a system that does not work
where the only fix is to reformat and reinstall. Changing permissions
wholesale on large folder hierarchies laid down by the operating system is
NOT supported.

If you would like to see the official statement, see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885409.
 

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