Vista Admin account

Can someone tell me what exactly it takes to get full control of all
files and folders, permissions etc.?

I have turned on the hidden Administrator account and renamed it to
myself and boot into it. Stll i get "access Denied" all over the place.

"Wizard" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Can someone tell me what exactly it takes to get full control of all
> files and folders, permissions etc.?

Where are you having a problem?

You could use a tool like icacls.exe to give yourself permission to
absolutely everything, but as Administrator you can be less drastic should
be able to Take Ownership of anything you want to from the Owner tab of the
Advanced Security Properties page.

Wizard wrote:
> Can someone tell me what exactly it takes to get full control of all
> files and folders, permissions etc.?
>
> I have turned on the hidden Administrator account and renamed it to
> myself and boot into it. Stll i get "access Denied" all over the place.

Perhaps you are trying to click on 'junctions' in Explorer. That's
the response you always get (for no good reason I can figure out).
Junctions are similar to shortcuts but human users can't use them
for anything. Make no sense.

To identify which directories are 'junctions' you can open a command
window and type dir /a and you'll see them.

"Wizard" <> wrote
> Can someone tell me what exactly it takes to get full control of all
> files and folders, permissions etc.?
>
> I have turned on the hidden Administrator account and renamed it to
> myself and boot into it. Stll i get "access Denied" all over the place.

What folders are giving you access denied? Some are only junction points
that have no content except pointing to another folder where the data is
actually kept. With show hidden files/folders checked, these are displaed
in Explorer with a dim icon that has the shortcut overlay. They are folders
that were in XP that have been migrated to Vista for compatibility for older
Apps, but are not actually used to store files or data. You don't need
access to them anyway, and you shouldn't change the permissions on those
folders because this could cause problems for legacy apps.

There is no need to use the built in Administrator account. It will not
help you there, and UAC is disabled when using it. There is almost no
difference between using an account with Admin privileges v. the
Administrator account for file access. Best to keep the Adminstrator
account disabled, and use either a Standard user account or another account
with Admin privileges.

Here is a list of such folders that are compatibility junction points from a
post by Jimmy Brush. I suggest before you start taking drastic steps you
ask questions first. Vista does things differently with a different
security model and a paradigm shift.

Here is a list of all of the folders that have been moved in Windows
Vista, along with their new location:
Windows XP Location Windows Vista Location
\Documents and Settings \Users
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents \Users\$USER$\Documents
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Music \Users\$USER$\Music
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Pictures
\Users\$USER$\Pictures
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Videos
\Users\$USER$\Videos
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Application Data
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Cookies
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Co okies
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\NetHood
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Ne twork Shortcuts
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\PrintHood
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Pr inter Shortcuts
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Recent
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Re cent
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\SendTo
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Se ndTo
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Start Menu
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\St art Menu
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Templates
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Te mplates
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Application Data
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\History
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Hist ory
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temp orary Internet Files
\Documents and Settings\All Users \ProgramData
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data \ProgramData
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop \Users\Public\Desktop
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents \Users\Public\Documents
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Favorites \Users\Public\Favorites
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Templates
\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
\Documents and Settings\Default User \Users\Default

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

Hi Wizard--

Before Vista and UAC, I'd have linked you to the 3 permission MSKBs.
Basically if you are getting access denied (besides turning off UAC at
msconfig which few if any of us would tell you to do, I would right click
the file or folder where you're getting the access denied>security tab>add>
check the boxes for permission under the target profile. Hopefully you
aren't getting so many of these access denied messages that this will become
burdensome.

CG


"Wizard" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Can someone tell me what exactly it takes to get full control of all
> files and folders, permissions etc.?
>
> I have turned on the hidden Administrator account and renamed it to
> myself and boot into it. Stll i get "access Denied" all over the place.