Windows 7 - All files from XP read-only... seriously??

To everyone that has this problem. It is not a bug.
The folders were created with an username on the XP install.

Ofcourse Windows 7 or any newly installed OS including XP, won't know that user because it was made in a previous install.

So in the new os the old user shows up as: S-76254-2346436-234634... or something similar.
It means user unknown.
To get full access to the folders and files you need to add a user that is created on the new OS.

Best practice is to use your username. You must also give it 'full permissions"

Usually you are not allowed to add users to a folder without first taking ownership. That is the only reason why you would need to take ownership in the first place.

NTFS security is not a simple matter. One needs to do some reading on it to understand it.
In the turorial section of this forum you can find a tutorial on setting permissions.
But you need to do the reading yourself.


However. There is an easier way.

To understand this I have to explain something.

1. When a folder with certain security settings is copied, the settings will be lost.
The copied folder will adopt the settings of the "parent" folder, or easier said, the folder you are copying it to.

2. When a folder is moved, the settings will remain as they were.

This is why sometimes you can enter the parent folder, but not the child.
The child has been moved from another location and maintained it's own settings.

How can this be helpful to you?

Create a new folder that resembles the "parent" folder that's giving you problems.

for example when the folder is called "My files" make the new one "My files2"

Check the security settings of that new folder.
If your username is not there, add it, and give it full permissions.

Now copy (NOT MOVE) the files from the exmpl. "My files" folder to the "my files2" folder.

All the folders will now adopt the security settings of the parent folder you created.
If you did them right, you should be ok.

Check if everything is working and then delete the old "my files" folder and rename the "my files2" folder to "my files". (examples names of course.)


good luck

edit: warning:
before doing this, make sure you have enough room on your disk for all the folders.
If you have little room , you need to copy only a few folders at a time and delete the folders that were done successfully. Then copy the next and so forth.

Hair-pulling time, because none of these suggestions works.
I have admin privileges, and I own the folders I'm trying to work with.
I can uncheck Read Only and apply that to the folder and its subfolders, etc.
The checkmark goes away until I reopen that same folder... then it's read only again.
What a huge mess and waste of time this is causing us, because we can't work with the hundreds of files we need to be able to work with!

Readonly does not apply to folders. The checkbox always has a block in it when viewing folder properties. You need to set the permissions in the security tab.