File permissions and UAC

After switching to vista I plugged in my external harddrive where
stored all of my documents etc when I was using XP. However once setup
found a was without privleges to my files.
I did as I would do in XP, take ownership of the drive and make sure
have full permission. I did this using the GUI and by command line, the
both complete sucessfully however when I go to open a file, a pictur
for example I will get a message saying I dont have privlages to acces
it

But if I open paint for example (run as administrator) I can then ope
the same file

My account is an administrator and there are no other users on this PC
I found if I disable UAC I can access evrything as normal

I want to keep UAC enabled, is there anyway to access the files/tak
ownership fully
Cheers, Jamie

--
JamieThompson

"JamieThompson" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> After switching to vista I plugged in my external harddrive where I
> stored all of my documents etc when I was using XP. However once setup I
> found a was without privleges to my files.
> I did as I would do in XP, take ownership of the drive and make sure I
> have full permission. I did this using the GUI and by command line, they
> both complete sucessfully however when I go to open a file, a picture
> for example I will get a message saying I dont have privlages to access
> it.
>
> But if I open paint for example (run as administrator) I can then open
> the same file!
>
> My account is an administrator and there are no other users on this PC,
> I found if I disable UAC I can access evrything as normal.
>
> I want to keep UAC enabled, is there anyway to access the files/take
> ownership fully?
> Cheers, Jamie.

Your account may be able to access the 'run as adnin' function, but Vista
doesn't let you actually BE the admin unless you activate and use the hidden
admin account.
They call it security...
once you have edited the permissions/ownership on the files (as
administrator) you should have full access.
If you are changing permissions from the command line, did you run 'cmd' as
admin?
--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!

Change Alpha to Numeric to reply

Ahah!
It appears that I was taking control of the harddive but not the files
listed in it!
Solution:>
> Run CMD as admin.
> Then type
> takeown /f f:\
> icacls f:\ /grant Jamie:F /T
>
Replaceing f:\ with your file location and Jamie with your account
username!
Thanks for the reply too!


--
JamieThompson

I read with interest Jamie Thompson's problem with having administrator
privileges. I have the same problem but want to keep UAC on if possible.
It is MY computer, MY folders, MY photos but I am not allowed to move
them or rename them! I have gone in and changed the read only access, I
have changed it in the Share section and still it won't let me. Why?
I'm afraid I didn't understand the reply to the other thread and would
need step-by-step instructions!! How do you 'run CMD as admin' for
example? I have myself as the administrator on this laptop, there is
also a guest account (switched off) and one I don't understand called
ASP.NET Machine Account - Administrator (where did that come from??).
Help please!! I am so frustrated that I am starting to hate Vista
(not my choice to start with and I have wasted countless hours trying to
do things on my own laptop) and am ready to throw the whole thing out of
the window. I just want full control of my own property! I hope someone
can help. Thank you all.


--
Jules_237

On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:50:48 -0500, Jules_237
<> wrote:

>
>I read with interest Jamie Thompson's problem with having administrator
>privileges. I have the same problem but want to keep UAC on if possible.
>It is MY computer, MY folders, MY photos but I am not allowed to move
>them or rename them! I have gone in and changed the read only access, I
>have changed it in the Share section and still it won't let me. Why?
>I'm afraid I didn't understand the reply to the other thread and would
>need step-by-step instructions!! How do you 'run CMD as admin' for
>example? I have myself as the administrator on this laptop, there is
>also a guest account (switched off) and one I don't understand called
>ASP.NET Machine Account - Administrator (where did that come from??).
>Help please!! I am so frustrated that I am starting to hate Vista
>(not my choice to start with and I have wasted countless hours trying to
>do things on my own laptop) and am ready to throw the whole thing out of
>the window. I just want full control of my own property! I hope someone
>can help. Thank you all.

This is probably the number one complaint about Vista. UAC while good
in concept in what it is suppose to do, is often horrible in
execution. If you want to keep UAC on, begin by forgetting all you
understood administrator privileges USED to mean in prior versions of
Windows.

In some feeble attempt to gain a measure of security, something
totally lacking in all prior versions of Windows... Microsoft came up
with User Account Control. First you need to understand WHY. The short
answer is UAC is an admission that Windows is such a easy OS to hack,
Microsoft has raised the white flag of surrender and no longer
pretends Windows is "secure". So UAC's purpose is to warn. NEVER
confuse it with offering protection. That's baloney.

While I agree 100% it IS indeed your computer, your folders and your
files, Vista no longer sees things that way. Just because they may be
your files, doesn't mean you are the owner. As half-ass backwards as
this sounds that's how things are now under Vista.

To remedy this situation you need to reestablish your authority. Go to
Windows Explorer, pick a few files at random, right click on them,
properties, then click on the Security tab. In the top half of the
window that opens you should see a list of "users" and in the bottom
half of the window a list of permission each user has. You should see
yourself (under whatever user you logged on as) in the user list. Once
highlighted you see what "authority" you have or don't have based on
what permissions you currently see checked. This is the problem.
Chances are the files/folders you are trying to access aren't owned by
you or if the system sees you under the user list you don't have
"allow" checked which is what is blocking you. Now that you know what
the problem is, next paragraph explains how to fix things.

To gain access to your files and to stop UAC from nagging it's dumb
ass off needlessly the simplest method is give yourself full
permission on a drive by drive basis. This presents a problem in that
Vista claims the root drive (C) as it's own and it doesn't like you
copying files anywhere on C other than the few preset folders. Even if
your limit yourself to such locations Vista still might nag or prevent
you from accessing your files. So learn how to take control of other
drives first, (explained below) then apply to specific problem files
on your C drive.

Assumes you have a "E" drive. Go to it's folder in Windows Explorer.
Right click, properties, security tab. Assuming this drive only
contains data files the only "user" listed should be you. If you don't
see yourself listed (what you logged in as) then you first need to add
yourself to this list. Click on the add button. A new window opens.
Click on the location button, you should see yourself listed. Add. If
you run into problems, click on examples which opens the help system
that gives you more specifics.

Assuming you saw yourself listed. Lets say you logged in on as Bob.
Make sure "Bob" is highlighted, then click OK. A new window opens that
shows what permissions Bob currently has. Change so Bob has allow for
all the permissions listed. (black check marks) Click OK.

In effect what's you've done is to tell Vista to accept Bob as a
authorized "owner" or an accepted user of any file that's on your "E"
drive. Accept for rare situations Vista should stop nagging about
anything on "E".

Repeat these steps for each hard drive you have, accept for drive C.
Because this is where the operating system and it's critical files are
typically located and the usual target of hackers and others wishing
to do mischief, do NOT change or modify users here. Many files by
design are owned by the "system" and should remain that way.

If you are in the habit of copying files to your C drive and not
placing them in folders, break that habit. Under Vista doing this will
cause UAC to nag worse than any mother-in-law. If you have files that
reside on some external drive or are carryovers from XP or another
system some might have owners or users. Until you add yourself as a
valid user to such files/folders UAC will normally block you from
accessing these files. To remedy proceed as you did before only doing
it on a individual file by file basis if necessary.

Doing all the above makes UAC tolerable. It still will nag on the rare
situations a real thread is detected and also for moronic things like
bitching about deleting orphaned shortcuts and other dumb things like
that.

If you have multiple hard drives remember moving files/folders from a
drive you give yourself full ownership rights to one that has less
rights or none at all for the user you logged on as, UAC might and
likely will nag again. So it is basically a global thing.

I'm not sure if you need to log in as the main admin or not. But this
problem happened to re-occur for me and this is how I fixed it.

Firstly you need to activate the admin account. To do this got to the
start menu, and in the search box type *cmd* this will show the command
prompt in the result, *right click and run as administrator*. UAC will
pop up to confirm your action.

Now type, *Net user administrator /active:yes*
This will activate the 'hidden' admin account, now switch users, or log
off. Either will do, make sure you close any open files.
This time log in as the administrator from the logon screen.

Again open up cmd, run as the admin as you did before.
The commands are
*takeown /f F:\*
where *f:\* is your file location.
It will say you now own the location, but you still need to give access
rites.
the next command is
*icacls f:\ /grant Jamie:F /T*
where *f:\* is your file location.

This should solve your problem go back to your main account and you
should be able to access all your files. However, if you find it hasn't
completed properly like I did, I found it didn't like to access *special
folders* for some reason so I had to run the *icacls* command again
using *f:\My Music* etc, it worked fine.

Again, I don't know if you really need to do it from the administrator
account. That's just how I did it. Seems to do the job!
Once your finished you can disable the admin account again by changing
the command to
*Net user administrator /active:no*
Hope this helps,
Jamie.


--
JamieThompson

JamieThompson wrote:
> I'm not sure if you need to log in as the main admin or not. But this
> problem happened to re-occur for me and this is how I fixed it.
>
> Firstly you need to activate the admin account. To do this got to the
> start menu, and in the search box type *cmd* this will show the command
> prompt in the result, *right click and run as administrator*. UAC will
> pop up to confirm your action.
>
> Now type, *Net user administrator /active:yes*
> This will activate the 'hidden' admin account, now switch users, or log
> off. Either will do, make sure you close any open files.
> This time log in as the administrator from the logon screen.
>
> Again open up cmd, run as the admin as you did before.
> The commands are
> *takeown /f F:\*
> where *f:\* is your file location.
> It will say you now own the location, but you still need to give access
> rites.
> the next command is
> *icacls f:\ /grant Jamie:F /T*
> where *f:\* is your file location.
>
> This should solve your problem go back to your main account and you
> should be able to access all your files. However, if you find it hasn't
> completed properly like I did, I found it didn't like to access *special
> folders* for some reason so I had to run the *icacls* command again
> using *f:\My Music* etc, it worked fine.
>
> Again, I don't know if you really need to do it from the administrator
> account. That's just how I did it. Seems to do the job!
> Once your finished you can disable the admin account again by changing
> the command to
> *Net user administrator /active:no*
> Hope this helps,
> Jamie.
>


Really, all you had to do as admin not even using the hidden super user
admin was to use the Security tab off of Folder or File Properties using
Explore, go to the folder or file and with the account Jamie add it to
the folder or file with the same rights as Administrators
(machinename\administrators). If one doesn't see the Security tab, then
one disables Simple File Sharing.

This doesn't work the same way as XP does, I tired it myself and foun
it would take ownership and grand full rites and I would be refuse
access rites when opening a file however I would still have full contro
and ownership. Therefore it was necessary to do it the way I outlined

--
JamieThompson

JamieThompson wrote:
> This doesn't work the same way as XP does, I tired it myself and found
> it would take ownership and grand full rites and I would be refused
> access rites when opening a file however I would still have full control
> and ownership. Therefore it was necessary to do it the way I outlined.
>
>

No, it is not necessary to do what you did, because I have faced that
bullet. All I ever had to do is make sure that the same account that I
used to login with, which was part of the Administrators group was also
added as User (machinename\bee) to the file of folder and problem
solved. NTFS is NTFS on XP or Vista.

Ah right, I stand corrected =] I must have been going wrong somewhere!


--
JamieThompson