Setting permissions

[Guest]

I'm the administrator on my home computer. I have some files that I need to
delete but I keep getting the Access Denied and that I don't have permission
to access the files. How do I set up permission for all the folders and sub
folders on my computer? I don't want to have to go in to each file and set
permissions individually, I just want to do it once and never have to worry
about it again. Is there a step-by-step that I can follow to accomplish
this? I set the permissions on the parent folder and then I try to delete
the folder and it tells me I don't have access to a sub folder, so then I go
to the sub folder and give myself permission and then I get the same message
again on another sub folder. I'm tired of doing it. Please help. LOL

 

[Guest]

I'm the administrator on my home computer. I have some files that I need to

delete but I keep getting the Access Denied and that I don't have permission
to access the files. How do I set up permission for all the folders and sub
folders on my computer? I don't want to have to go in to each file and set
permissions individually, I just want to do it once and never have to worry
about it again. Is there a step-by-step that I can follow to accomplish
this? I set the permissions on the parent folder and then I try to delete
the folder and it tells me I don't have access to a sub folder, so then I go
to the sub folder and give myself permission and then I get the same message
again on another sub folder. I'm tired of doing it. Please help. LOL

You really, really, do not want to turn off all file system security. It
would be a really bad idea.

What you need to do is set permissions properly on the things you need to
access. If you hit the Advanced button in the permissions dialog. and then
hit the "Edit..." button, you will get a dialog with a few more options. one
is to "Replace all existing inheritable permissions on all descendants with
inheritable permissions from this object." That option will propagate all the
permissions you set on the parent folder down to all the children.

Please, do not do this on the entire hard drive. Do it on the things that
you need to delete, when you need to delete them.

 

[Tom]

I had a similar problem and this is how I solved it.
1. Click Start
2. Control Panel
3. User Accounts
4. Make changes to your User Account
5.Turn User Account control on or off
6. Uncheck the box...Use User account control (UAC) to help protect your
computer.
7. Click OK button

Thats it. Now you have control of your computer.

NEXT... to keep from logging in every time you turn on the computer,

Still in control panel...
1. Click Parental Controls
2. At the computer Administrator icon click to remove password or (no
password).

Let me know if this fixes your problem.
Tom

 

[Tom]

In light of what Jesper said about not removing all security restrictions on
your computer, my wife and I are the only ones that use our computer and so
I am not worried about anyone else misusing my computer. I do not need the
security to protect me from myself. If someone else is using your computer
and you don't trust them, then by all means leave the security intact.

 

[Guest]

In light of what Jesper said about not removing all security restrictions on

your computer, my wife and I are the only ones that use our computer and so
I am not worried about anyone else misusing my computer. I do not need the
security to protect me from myself. If someone else is using your computer
and you don't trust them, then by all means leave the security intact.

Still, if you disable UAC the way you suggest you also disable an awful lot
of the security enhancements in Windows Vista. For example, you will be
reading all e-mail messages and browse all web sites as an administrator.
That means that any malware you should happen to accidentally click on will
run as an administrator.

This type of thing was the number one cause of malware infections on Windows
XP. These technologies are here to help you run as a non-administrator more
of the time, to avoid having the slightest misclick result in your bank
account balance being transferred to Moscow. I'm not making that one up
either. It has happened, far too often.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> Jesper

Still, if you disable UAC the way you suggest you also disable an awful lot
of the security enhancements in Windows Vista. For example, you will be
reading all e-mail messages and browse all web sites as an administrator.
That means that any malware you should happen to accidentally click on will
run as an administrator.

This type of thing was the number one cause of malware infections on Windows
XP. These technologies are here to help you run as a non-administrator more
of the time, to avoid having the slightest misclick result in your bank
account balance being transferred to Moscow. I'm not making that one up
either. It has happened, far too often.

While you're not wrong, you know what the number one infection vector
during my days with XP was? The top three is as follows:

1)
2)
3)

No infections. Zero. No reliance on definitions which are, by
definition, out of date when they are needed most, during an outbreak.

It's not for everyone, but for those that know what they're doing, UAC
isn't needed.

That being said, I've left it enabled since it's not really a big deal
either, I rarely see more then a couple popups a day, and usually
because I'm constantly tinkering with something.

 

[Guest]

While you're not wrong, you know what the number one infection vector

during my days with XP was? The top three is as follows:

1)
2)
3)

I had the same experience. Sadly, we were in the minority.

No infections. Zero. No reliance on definitions which are, by
definition, out of date when they are needed most, during an outbreak.

Anti-* does not work for many of the modern attacks. The definition update
cycles are far too slow.

It's not for everyone, but for those that know what they're doing, UAC
isn't needed.

No, and you could quite easily claim that eventually malware will catch up
with UAC and it will not provide protection even for those who need it. That
much is quite clear. UAC is not primarily designed to protect against
attacks. It is designed to increase the ability to run as a non-admin, which
DOES protect against many attacks. By leaving UAC on, and demanding of
vendors that they write software that works properly with it, those "that
know what they are doing" can help those that do not be safer by helping
reduce the number of situations where you must be an admin.

That being said, I've left it enabled since it's not really a big deal
either, I rarely see more then a couple popups a day, and usually
because I'm constantly tinkering with something.

Glad to hear it, and your experience is quite like mine.

 

[Guest]

Wow, thank you all for all your input. Ok, I do understand about the UAC and
I have no intentions of turning that off. It's just that I ran into a
situation where I needed to restore a backup file that I had saved in the
Documents folder and when I tried to access that file in Documents, I was
greeted with that silly message that I don't have permission to access
Documents. As Administrator I think that is the silliest message I could
get.

I too, like both Tom and Jesper have never experienced an infection but
still was glad to read about UAC and am not bothered those pop-ups. It's
just that I have some junk files laying around my hard drive and I want to
get rid of them and they don't appear in the Add/Remove, so I have to do it
the other way, but I don't want to get stuck on all the sub-folders. And by
giving myself permissions on the entire hard drive won't stop UAC from
popping up, will it?

Thanks again for all your sage advice, I really do appreciate it and it's a
great learning experience.

 

[Guest]

But the MS News server is using your computer right now. When you read this
I am using your computer. If I trick you into doing X or there is a security
flaw in OE then I can also access those files.

Don't always think local. Think of the world. The only safe thing to do is
not use passwords because only local people can do things without passwords
not remote people.

I'm not saying what you should do. I'm just pointing out your risk assesment
is based on wrong hypothsis (local vs remote).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I had a similar problem and this is how I solved it.
1. Click Start
2. Control Panel
3. User Accounts
4. Make changes to your User Account
5.Turn User Account control on or off
6. Uncheck the box...Use User account control (UAC) to help protect
your computer.
7. Click OK button

Thats it. Now you have control of your computer.

I don't recommend doing this at all. Over and above the security
implications of turning off UAC, it has other undesirable side effects. For
example, some program installations (Adobe Reader 8 is one) will fail, and
fail mysteriously, without any indication of what the problem is.

 

[Tom]

I have a totally different understanding of UAC than you do and I read this
from a microsoft website. The purpose of UAC is to protect a computer if it
is used at a company that has multiple users on a computer. Each users work
would be protected from other people modifying it, deleting it, etc. Also,
some people surf the web, at work, and could download malware which would
wreck havoc on the computer (if it were not protected by UAC). And UAC
prevents someone from loading their own software onto a company computer
without administrator permission. BUT, I am retired. My wife and I are the
only ones that use this computer. It has a firewall and we do not go to
rogue websites. We have worked with computers for years and are comfortable
around them. Occasionally, I repair computers and write software. And, Larry
E asked a question and I answered it. What he does with that information is
his business. I do thank you all for your inputs. I understand that one
answer doesn't fit all users.
Tom

 

[Guest]

That is not what UAC is for. The computer does all that anyway. It allows a
way arounds User Account protection in a supposedly more user ftiendly way
and as many people run as Admin also gives them Standard user protection.

 

[Guest]

Wow, thank you all for all your input. Ok, I do understand about the UAC
and

I have no intentions of turning that off. It's just that I ran into a
situation where I needed to restore a backup file that I had saved in the
Documents folder and when I tried to access that file in Documents, I was
greeted with that silly message that I don't have permission to access
Documents. As Administrator I think that is the silliest message I could
get.

Larry, I think you are absolutely right. This is a perfect example of what
happens when you have geeks review user interfaces designed by geeks. I
looked at that dialog for over a year before Vista shipped, and even though I
did not like it, it was not egregiously bad. Spending just a few hours in the
newsgroups you discover that the message is void of any real meaning to
normal users.

I too, like both Tom and Jesper have never experienced an infection but
still was glad to read about UAC and am not bothered those pop-ups. It's
just that I have some junk files laying around my hard drive and I want to
get rid of them and they don't appear in the Add/Remove, so I have to do it
the other way, but I don't want to get stuck on all the sub-folders. And by
giving myself permissions on the entire hard drive won't stop UAC from
popping up, will it?

Actually, it would. The UAC popup happens because the process that is trying
to delete the files does not have access to them. Even though you are an
administrator most of the time your processes do not reflect that. When you
elevate you "become" an administrator, if that makes any sense. By giving
yourself full control over everything on the drive you will remove all the
UAC popups related to file system access for your user account; but at a
terrible cost.

<shamelessPlug>
If that does not make any sense, might I suggest you read the book?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.h...ourwi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

I already explained it in depth there.
</shamelessPlug>

 

[Guest]

Confusion about Vista Features: What UAC Really Is
http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jes...-about-vista-features-what-uac-really-is.aspx