A
Adam Albright
This is classic Microsoft. I hope there is a easy fix.
Can anybody confirm this only happens on the business version or does
this curse all versions of Vista?
As many already know in a effort to improve security Vista now
incorporates new levels of security, similar to UNIX permissions,
which many of you already know about if you've ever uploaded files to
a web server etc..
Well now... I'm posting this article here because it may change some
people's minds, I'm about ready to yank Vista off my computer and tell
Gates to shove it where the sun don't shine.
As I've said several times in other threads I have a complex setup
with nearly 2 TB worth of files spread over many drives including
external ones which at any point in time may be either online or off.
I had assumed when you do a in place install that Windows would be
smart enough to not mess around. Oops, I forgot, we're talking about
Microsoft that does things that follow neither rhyme or reason and
never asks YOU the owner, if you want to do something, it instead just
does what it wants, and often behind your back without you knowing.
I got hundreds of thousands of files spread over thousands of folders.
I just started to get back to work. So I open up my video editor and
tell it to save a file. Moronic Vista throws up a warning message and
says no, your can't put it on Drive F, you don't have permission,
would you like to save it to... making a suggestion to put the file in
my "picture" folder. I say, no thanks, it says, sorry, then you can't
save the file.
What?
Check this out yourself:
If you right click on a drive letter, then properties, then the
security tab you'll see something new. Groups, and user names followed
by a laundry list of permissions each have. You need administrative
rights to change. So far ok, a pain in the butt, but it gets worse.
I randomly try to open some of the 50,000 odd thousand files I have on
my F drive and its a crap shoot if Vista lets me open them.
I go to the root of F, right click on the drive letter and just assign
myself (under my user name) full permission. LOL! You think that would
fix things. No it don't. Vista starts to scan the file list and seems
to be changing permissions. Then it haults. Again it says you don't
have permission for file blah, blah.
Well damn it Microsoft, I have full administrative rights, I had to
jump through hoops to get to this screen and then you tell me I can't
change anything on some files. Still worse, it just starts up again
and continues down the list stopping several more times refussing
access. Oh, that was fun. Now something is my stack of 50,000 plus
files, several at least Vista has decided that I even as administrator
don't have permission to access them. Way to go Microsoft!
Welcome to Microsoft's idea of "security". You the owner get blocked
from accessing your own files, not all of them, some. Grrrr!
I'm not done, not by a long shot...
I decide to test this so-called security. I point my newsreader to a
graphics newsgroup. I first look at my E drive. According to Vista I
don't have permission to write to this drive either if I look on the
security tab for this hard drive. Ok, fine. I'll leave it that way.
Now I select 50 image files from that graphic newsgroup. I download
them to drive E. To "save" a file, Vista needs to have write
permission. Writing permission is the most dangerous to give for
obvious reasons. Remeber I DID NOT give permission and before I
started Vista told me I don't have write permission for dive E. I
guess it, (Vista) always has permission to do any mischief it wants.
Remember it just said I don't have write permission so you would
assume it could not write to my E drive and surely I could not access
these files. After all, isn't that the point of adding security?
Anybody surprised that Vista did both? Not only did Vista write the 50
graphic files to the E drive that should have been "locked", (remember
it said I don't have permission and I used my user name to download
the files, yet it now lets me view them, copy or move them, remember I
don't have permission to access the drive according to Vista.
Worse yet...
I fire up Bounce Back which is my automated backup software.
Originally Vista said it didn't like its driver, well that was just
another lie, it works fine. And surprise, it can scan every drive I
have hundreds upon hundreds of GB's of files and then compiled a list
of files I have yet to backup.
OK, reading files is one thing. Will Vista allow Bounce Back to write
to drives it says are "locked" for security reasons? What do you
think?
Sure it can. And proceeds to do a normal backup of a couple thousand
files that span all my drives.
I'll defer to some MVP to "explain" this odd behavior. I'm listening,
but hurry up, I got to find the asprin bottle.
Can anybody confirm this only happens on the business version or does
this curse all versions of Vista?
As many already know in a effort to improve security Vista now
incorporates new levels of security, similar to UNIX permissions,
which many of you already know about if you've ever uploaded files to
a web server etc..
Well now... I'm posting this article here because it may change some
people's minds, I'm about ready to yank Vista off my computer and tell
Gates to shove it where the sun don't shine.
As I've said several times in other threads I have a complex setup
with nearly 2 TB worth of files spread over many drives including
external ones which at any point in time may be either online or off.
I had assumed when you do a in place install that Windows would be
smart enough to not mess around. Oops, I forgot, we're talking about
Microsoft that does things that follow neither rhyme or reason and
never asks YOU the owner, if you want to do something, it instead just
does what it wants, and often behind your back without you knowing.
I got hundreds of thousands of files spread over thousands of folders.
I just started to get back to work. So I open up my video editor and
tell it to save a file. Moronic Vista throws up a warning message and
says no, your can't put it on Drive F, you don't have permission,
would you like to save it to... making a suggestion to put the file in
my "picture" folder. I say, no thanks, it says, sorry, then you can't
save the file.
What?
Check this out yourself:
If you right click on a drive letter, then properties, then the
security tab you'll see something new. Groups, and user names followed
by a laundry list of permissions each have. You need administrative
rights to change. So far ok, a pain in the butt, but it gets worse.
I randomly try to open some of the 50,000 odd thousand files I have on
my F drive and its a crap shoot if Vista lets me open them.
I go to the root of F, right click on the drive letter and just assign
myself (under my user name) full permission. LOL! You think that would
fix things. No it don't. Vista starts to scan the file list and seems
to be changing permissions. Then it haults. Again it says you don't
have permission for file blah, blah.
Well damn it Microsoft, I have full administrative rights, I had to
jump through hoops to get to this screen and then you tell me I can't
change anything on some files. Still worse, it just starts up again
and continues down the list stopping several more times refussing
access. Oh, that was fun. Now something is my stack of 50,000 plus
files, several at least Vista has decided that I even as administrator
don't have permission to access them. Way to go Microsoft!
Welcome to Microsoft's idea of "security". You the owner get blocked
from accessing your own files, not all of them, some. Grrrr!
I'm not done, not by a long shot...
I decide to test this so-called security. I point my newsreader to a
graphics newsgroup. I first look at my E drive. According to Vista I
don't have permission to write to this drive either if I look on the
security tab for this hard drive. Ok, fine. I'll leave it that way.
Now I select 50 image files from that graphic newsgroup. I download
them to drive E. To "save" a file, Vista needs to have write
permission. Writing permission is the most dangerous to give for
obvious reasons. Remeber I DID NOT give permission and before I
started Vista told me I don't have write permission for dive E. I
guess it, (Vista) always has permission to do any mischief it wants.
Remember it just said I don't have write permission so you would
assume it could not write to my E drive and surely I could not access
these files. After all, isn't that the point of adding security?
Anybody surprised that Vista did both? Not only did Vista write the 50
graphic files to the E drive that should have been "locked", (remember
it said I don't have permission and I used my user name to download
the files, yet it now lets me view them, copy or move them, remember I
don't have permission to access the drive according to Vista.
Worse yet...
I fire up Bounce Back which is my automated backup software.
Originally Vista said it didn't like its driver, well that was just
another lie, it works fine. And surprise, it can scan every drive I
have hundreds upon hundreds of GB's of files and then compiled a list
of files I have yet to backup.
OK, reading files is one thing. Will Vista allow Bounce Back to write
to drives it says are "locked" for security reasons? What do you
think?
Sure it can. And proceeds to do a normal backup of a couple thousand
files that span all my drives.
I'll defer to some MVP to "explain" this odd behavior. I'm listening,
but hurry up, I got to find the asprin bottle.