Re: Need to understand permissions and ownership

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Malke wrote:
Luis Ortega wrote:
Thanks a lot for your explanation.
Can you please explain why I wouldn't want to blindly take over
ownership of everything?

Because there is no need. Unless you are trying to share files in a
protected area such as Program Files (not recommended under *any* operating
system), you would just leave well enough alone.

Does this corrupt the system? Does it open it up to greater security
threats?

Corrupt? Not in the technical sense. Make insecure? Most definitely,
although the extent of the vulnerability would depend on circumstances.

As for why, there is no real reason other than I am used to having
control over my computer and don't like it when the OS tells me that
access is denied.

Did you actually read what I took a fair amount of time to write you? If you
are getting "access denied" it is probably because you are trying to access
a virtual location. This is impossible to do and has nothing to do with
ownership.

If I have selected something like the c drive and tried to get ownership
of it, is that bad?

Yes, it is a security vulnerability to share an entire drive and normally it
is completely unnecessary. Again, state what you are trying to do. If you
are just playing around and complaining, then I'm done. If you are trying
to share something on the C: drive with another computer, then I'm happy to
tell you how to do this.

I worry about having done something wrong now.
Is there any way to correct the ownerships/permissions if I have done
something bad?
I did make a restore point before starting to foll around with the
ownerships. Should I revert to that?
If that reverts it back to the original state, what sort of
ownership/permissions should I aim to set?

In other posts, you have stated that you are completely new to Vista. If I
were you, I'd spend some quality time really learning about the operating
system before tinkering with it. Or buy yourself an external hard drive and
Acronis True Image and image your perfectly working system. Then tinker to
your heart's content, safe in the knowledge that you can restore your Vista
install in a few minutes. Sometimes the best way to learn how things work
is to take them apart and break them. Knowing you can easily get back up
and running frees you to do this.

Yes, if you've messed around with permissions for no good reason doing a
System Restore to before that time would probably be a good idea. And once
again, unless you are trying to share files/folders over a Local Area
Network or take ownership of files you've imported into your system from
another operating system (eg., old user files from an XP system) there is
absolutely no reason to futz about with ownership and/or permissions on a
single-user system.

Malke

Thanks again.
I tried to do some system restores but it said that it encountered a problem and did not make any changes, so I am stuck with whatever I have now.
I don't know if they failed because of something I did by changing ownerships or permissions or if there is some other reason. Whatever it is, it won't accept any of my restore points.

I know that I changed ownership on the c drive and also tried to change ownership of the users folder to my own named account.

I understand about the virtual folders and am not trying to access those.

This is a single user system but it is on a wireless broadband connection to the internet. I do not need to share files with another computer but my daughter may try to use the bluetooth feature to connect to an ipod or something.
I am primarily worried about making the system vulnerable to attacks from the internet by having changed ownerships or permissions. I am not concerned about intrusions from any local networks or unauthorized persons getting into the system. It is just our home computer.

Is there any way to change the c drive back to anything more secure? Should I try to delete or remove permissions from the authenticated users from the lists of who has permissions and just leave system, administrators and users on the lists?
Should I consider reinstalling vista again?
.

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