Vista: Access Denied!

[Boobers]

Often, when I try to delete or move a file, Vista complains about "Destination Folder Access Denied. You need permission to to perform this action."

I have an Admin account, so this makes me very mad indeed.
I also have UAC turned off, but still the problem remains.
I move/delete lots of folders and this is just geting old.

My hard drive Properties->Security->Everyone group has full control (allows all options, except "Special Permissions" which Vista won't let me select).

I think I need Special Permissions, but I hear they are only available to an Admin logged in in safe mode.

Somebody must know how to fix this?

 

[BucNews]

Did you try running the command prompt as admin to accopmplish the task?

 

[Boobers]

I refuse to take the caveman path of command prompt usage.
I want to move/delete files like XP always lets me do.
Besides, I delete WAY too many folders to use the command prompt.

How do I fix this in "Computer" (you know..it used to be called Windows Explorer)?

 

[stash]

Gah! Why would you change the permissions on your C: drive to Everyone:F??

What kind of file(s) are you trying to delete? Where are these files located?

 

[Boobers]

Regular Files...regular folders...on a storage drive...

Everyone is set to Full so the XP computers on my network can access files on my Vista machine.

 

[stash]

Regular Files...regular folders...on a storage drive...

That you original used on an XP machine (or some other machine period) right? You need to take ownership of those files, they were created with a different user (SID).

To take ownership of a folder
1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.

2. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.

3. Click Edit. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

4. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.

5. If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.

6. Click OK.

Everyone is set to Full so the XP computers on my network can access files on my Vista machine.

Wow. No need to do that. Use the sharing wizard or throw files in the public directories.

 

[Smilin]

OP:
Please go read up on NTFS permissions.

You are clearly getting frustrated. You are also swinging away at the problem with no understanding of what you are doing and as a result have placed very dangerous permissions on all of your files.

There are technet articles, helpfiles and internet resources all over the place. It should take you all of 5-20 minutes to find and read just about everything you'll need to know. Take a quick break from the problem and go gain some knowledge.

 

[pcgeek11]

Here I am come and get me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :0

pcgeek11

 

[Boobers]

Stash...changing ownership didn't help. I changed it from SYSTEM to ADMINISTRATORS.

If I try to move a folder, it says "Destination Folder Access Denied"
"You Need permission to perform this action"
However, if I just reboot...then I can perform the move no problem.

Something weird is definitely going on here...

M$ says I have this problem because the drive was formatted by WinXP and is now connected to a Vista computer. Their fix is to reformat the drive in Vista.

Well, it's darn near impossible to format the drive during install of an upgrade version of Vista (because the Vista upgrade disk will only install from inside a Windows environment...meaning the hard drive must be formatted before Vista will install!), so M$ should fix their junky file system.

However, I just found out how to do a clean install of Vista from an upgrade disk...so I'll try that on another drive.


EDIT: Smilin, I've been looking everywhere.

Like HERE or HERE or HERE or HERE

Others have similar problems...no complete fix.

 

[stash]

Stash...changing ownership didn't help. I changed it from SYSTEM to ADMINISTRATORS.

Are you doing this on the Vista machine? Are you actually in the admins group? Whoami /groups will tell you.

Well, it's darn near impossible to format the drive during install of an upgrade version of Vista (because the Vista upgrade disk will only install from inside a Windows environment...meaning the hard drive must be formatted before Vista will install!), so M$ should fix their junky file system.

I thought this was an external drive. Why are you trying to do a clean install on an external drive? That junky file system is the same one that XP uses with a few additions.

Not sure what your point is with the four links...

 

[Boobers]

OK...here's the deal. I am talking about my Vista machine. I am in the Admin group.

I have one 250Gb hard drive in this Vista machine. It is divided into three partitions.

C: 5Gb WinXP (have to have this to run Vista upgrade disk)
E: 50Gb Vista
F: 175Gb Data Folders (Mostly DVD rips)

I have set "Administrators" as the owner of all drives, files and folders.

The junky file system is NOT the same. I can delete any folders on the Vista machine over the network from my XP machines (I have three on my network). But when I try to delete or move files on the Vista machine itself, I sometimes (not always) get the ACCESS DENIED message. These files were created on the Vista machine, by me, with Admin permissions and I have UAC disabled.




BTW: The four links show Smilin that I have indeed looked around already for an answer and that other people are having similar problems and nobody has solved all the problems.

 

[stash]

The junky file system is NOT the same. I can delete any folders on the Vista machine over the network from my XP machines (I have three on my network). But when I try to delete or move files on the Vista machine itself, I sometimes (not always) get the ACCESS DENIED message.

Guess what? The file system is the same in that case. If you delete a file over the network, you are using the file system of the box you are connecting to, not the file system of the box you are connecting from

So what that tells me is that you still have not set the permissions correctly. It tells me that the account you are using on your XP has permissions and the account on your Vista machine does not.

Log on to the Vista machine and grant ownership to your specific (Vista) user account.

The four links don't show anything other than some people who don't understand what they're doing and a help file that isn't relevant to this issue.

edit: wrong quote.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: Boobers
M$ says I have this problem because the drive was formatted by WinXP and is now connected to a Vista computer.

Well, it's darn near impossible to format the drive during install of an upgrade version of Vista (because the Vista upgrade disk will only install from inside a Windows environment...meaning the hard drive must be formatted before Vista will install!), so M$ should fix their junky file system.

You might want to stop using the childish 'M$' acronym, especially given that 2 Microsoft employees are trying to help you - for FREE no less.

 

[Boobers]

OK...you seem to think I haven't set my ownership correctly.

I only have two options for ownership (right-click folder->properties->security->advanced->owner->edit...BTW, exactly how is this the same as XP?):
1. Administrators
2. "Me"

I set the ownership on all folders and the drive itself. No matter which one I choose to own the folders, the ACCESS DENIED pop-up is the same.

EDIT: BUT...if I do nothing but simply reboot the machine...I can perform the delete/move instantly...where before rebooting I got the ACCESS DENIED pop-up.

EDIT: XP is different in that you can use "Simple File Sharing". This does away with the security tab on folders, altogether! This is what I want to do in Vista. If Vista's file system is the same...how do I enable Simple File Sharing?




It's M$ because they charged me $11 for a free upgrade to Vista...then charged me another $11 for the 64-bit version. Thanks for the $22 FREE upgrade!

At this rate, I can't afford anything FREE from M$!

 

[stash]

Unfortunately since you have gone and blindly clicked on a whole bunch of different things, it makes it really difficult for me to figure out what the problem is. You also are still not reading what I'm saying about the file systems.

I only have two options for ownership (right-click folder->properties->security->advanced->owner->edit...BTW, exactly how is this the same as XP?):

I didn't say that was the same. What I said was, whether you access a Vista machine locally (sitting in front of it) or from another machine (XP, Mac, OS/2, whatever), you are using the file system of the Vista system. You're not doing anything with the machine you are accessing it FROM.

EDIT: XP is different in that you can use "Simple File Sharing". This does away with the security tab on folders, altogether! This is what I want to do in Vista. If Vista's file system is the same...how do I enable Simple File Sharing?

Simple File Sharing is turned off in Vista because it caused inordinate amounts of confusion/pain with XP. That said, sharing is ridiculously easy in Vista. Right click a folder and click share. Pick who you want to give access to and what kind of access and that's it. Or turn on Public Folder sharing and just throw files in the public folders. More info here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx

For the permissions issue, the easiest thing is for you to show me exactly what the permissions are for a particular folder you are having trouble with. To do this, don't make any more changes. Open a command prompt and type (for example) "cacls c:\users\boobers\documents > output.txt" Then type "output.txt" to open the output file in notepad. Copy everything in that file and paste it here.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: stash
For the permissions issue, the easiest thing is for you to show me exactly what the permissions are for a particular folder you are having trouble with. To do this, don't make any more changes. Open a command prompt and type (for example) "cacls c:\users\boobers\documents > output.txt" Then type "output.txt" to open the output file in notepad. Copy everything in that file and paste it here.

I was just about to say that

 

[stash]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: stash
For the permissions issue, the easiest thing is for you to show me exactly what the permissions are for a particular folder you are having trouble with. To do this, don't make any more changes. Open a command prompt and type (for example) "cacls c:\users\boobers\documents > output.txt" Then type "output.txt" to open the output file in notepad. Copy everything in that file and paste it here.

I was just about to say that

Well at least I'm making SOME sense!

 

[juktar]

I would do as everyone suggests. You have changed way to much for anyone to help you. Take a deep breath and show everyone the permissions that you have on a folder as suggested.

 

[Job]

If you need to run a program as an administrator you need to select that option while UAC is ON - it will not let you if UAC is OFF. Turn it back on, reboot, try running it again and it should work. Then you can turn UAC off again. Simple as that.

 

[stash]

If you need to run a program as an administrator you need to select that option while UAC is ON - it will not let you if UAC is OFF.

That's because you already ARE an administrator (unless you are not in the administrators group).

If you are in the admins group, "run as an administrator" has no meaning. Everything is run as administrator because turning off UAC turns off the split tokens for users in the administrators group.

Turning off UAC is a really bad idea because UAC is what makes it possible to run as a standard user and have things actually work. If you turn it off, you either have to run as a full admin all the time (really bad idea) or try to run as a regular user, which would be roughly the same experience as running as a standard user on XP (painful).

 

[Boobers]

OK...figures that it won't do it now...I'll post next time I see the pop-up.

BTW...Please, I didn't blindly click on anything. I know every change I've made, and I can set it all back. I'm not a noob...I logged onto my first mainframe using a DecWriter in the 70's. (The pic is of a Dec II, but you get my point!) .

 

[Job]

I came accross this issue while trying to play GTA san andreas without UAC turned on. In order to do this, in the 'compatibility' tab under properties (or 'customize') I needed to check the box that read 'run program as administrator'. I was not able to check this box until UAC was back on again - then once it was checked I could turn the damn thing back off again - I get fairly pissed off being asked if I'm giving permission for even the most mundane tasks to be performed - mind you, I am the only one set up to use this PC so running in full admin mode all the time is what im aiming for.

If you are the only person using your PC turn UAC off once you've got yourself secured with anti-virus etc and got all the programs you need running in 'admin mode'. I honestly can't understand the point of that.

 

[Boobers]

Thank you, Job. I think forcing UAC on end users is bad idea!

 

[stash]

I know every change I've made, and I can set it all back

Actually, you can't, and it has nothing to do with your skill level. You're basically in an unsupported state right now.

If you read this article, you'll see that changing the default permissions on a drive is a really bad idea: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885409

The article is for XP and 2003, but will also apply to Vista. From the article (emphasis mine):

Extensive permission changes that are propagated throughout the registry and file system cannot be undone. New folders, such as user profile folders that were not present at the original installation of the operating system, may be affected. Therefore, if you remove a Group Policy setting that performs ACL changes, or you apply the system defaults, you cannot roll back the original ACLs.

Changes to the ACL in the %SystemDrive% folder may cause the following scenarios:

? The Recycle Bin no longer functions as designed, and files cannot be recovered.
? A reduction of security that lets a non-administrator view the contents of the administrator?s Recycle Bin.
? The failure of user profiles to function as expected.
? A reduction of security that provides interactive users with read access to some or to all user profiles on the system.
? Performance problems when many ACL edits are loaded into a Group Policy object that includes long logon times or repeated restarts of the target system.
? Performance problems, including system slowdowns, every 16 hours or so as Group Policy settings are reapplied.
? Application compatibility problems or application crashes.

To help you remove the worst results of such file and registry permissions, Microsoft will provide commercially reasonable efforts in line with your support contract. However, currently, you cannot roll back these changes. We can guarantee only that you can return to the recommended out-of-the-box settings by reformatting your hard disk drive and by reinstalling the operating system.

 

[stash]

In order to do this, in the 'compatibility' tab under properties (or 'customize') I needed to check the box that read 'run program as administrator'. I was not able to check this box until UAC was back on again - then once it was checked I could turn the damn thing back off again

It was greyed out because you have to click the button on the compat tab to show settings for all users, which will throw up a UAC prompt. You can't check the box to run as an admin until you have given permission. Again, the box has no meaning if you turn off UAC and your account is in the administrators group.

If you are the only person using your PC turn UAC off once you've got yourself secured with anti-virus etc and got all the programs you need running in 'admin mode'. I honestly can't understand the point of that.

Antivirus is worthless against a large majority of the threats out there. But the main goal is UAC is to allow you to run as a standard user all the time. Running as a full administrator all the time on Windows, regardless of what protections you have is a really bad idea. Just as it's a bad idea to do everyday tasks as root on a Linux box, it's a bad idea to run as administrator all time on Windows.