Re: Please help - Vista has completely blocked file access from all accounts!

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Itchyfinger wrote:

Sorry, I was trying to be brief for those who've seen this problem. At
the same time that I try to avoid verbosity, I'm concerned with being
overlooked as the idiot who didn't use the Administrator account, and
did no research before posting.

I understand, but there is a big difference between being brief and
providing enough information.

Windows Explorer quite simply won't let me touch my files, which
include all data (documents, pictures, music) which I myself put on my
computer. Each folder which contains any of the above has been replaced
by a shortcut icon, and I get an error whenever I click on one of them.

What is the error? Please quote it exactly, without paraphrasing.

What Vista never saves are (mostly) "permissions" - this is what Vista
calls the file security settings. What I mean by this is everything from
Read-Only attribute which is default on the Properties tab of all my
files to all the other security settings on the third tab. I have, over
time, experimented with these settings. and Vista remained politely
impassive as I save the unchecked Read-Only setting, and the changes I
make on Security tab, but after I've closed the file and opened it again
all my changes are reset! Vista treats me no different no matter which
account I'm logged in under, and then (now) they are now both
Administrator! Not that I did anything with these settings prior to
being blocked from my files.

If you are trying to make changes to the Read Only status of *folders*, this
is expected behavior. Vista, like XP before it, does not use the Read Only
attribute for file folders. If you are talking about changing the
attributes on single files, that's another story. What attributes are you
trying to change and why? Are these files all over the hard drive or in one
particular directory? Which one?

What was I doing before it happened? I moved a lot of files from the
almost full C drive to D, established a soft link to the new folders
from the C drive, using the MKLINK command (I used this command just the
day before without disaster), and the last thing I did was through the
Control Panel -> Folder Options window. I had been looking for a way to
truly get that obnoxious "Favorite Links" routine, which covers the
Navigation Pane out of my way, so I unchecked "Display simple folder
view in Navigation Pane" (Folder Options->View), and switched from the
"Show preview and filters" under Tasks (Properties->General) to Use
Windows classic folders, to see what would happen - the descriptions
indicate such experiments would be harmless, at worse. I had been
switching icons for new folders, which gave me an interest in certain
.dll files which are hidden, so I opted to "Show hidden files and
folders". I happen to have been using computers since long before files
could be hidden by an OS shell, I understand the gravity of careless
treatment of certain file folders, and then Bill Gates should be doing
more to protect me from his own stupidity than mine - I opted not to
"Hide protected operating system files" as well. All this from within my
secondary "Administrator"-type account, and these settings actually were
saved.

I'm guessing that with all your tinkering you did something wrong. That's
all I can make out from what you've written. Why you would bother creating
shortcuts from the command line is unknown to me. Why not simply
right-click and drag to wherever you want the shortcut and choose "Create
Shortcut"?

Has anyone actually had experience with TWO Administrator accounts? I
did get similar problems before this, with only one, but it does make me
wonder about the possibility for conflict.

Of course lots of people have more than one Administrator account. It's a
good idea in fact.

Unless you provide the text of any error messages you get, I can't possibly
guess what's gone wrong. I can tell you that the behavior you say you are
experiencing is not normal for Vista. Possibly a System Restore to before
you were making changes is a good idea for you.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

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