Windows 7: How to enable access to all folders?

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate as system administrator, however it happens for certain folders that Windows does not enable me to open them. How can I have Windows 7 grant me full access to ALL folders in my PC? Thanks.

You can not do that, it will damage your system if you try.

Regards....Mike Connor

Hi,

You can enable the Built-In Admin Account which has 100% user rights to at least 99% of the system.



OS

It's also worth noting that:

1) anything nasty that you happen to have on your PC will have full access to the machine,
2) You can seriously bork something if you don't know what your doing.

And just what folders are you trying to access?
If I had to guess, the compatibility Junctions.

Well, I'm used to Windows XP where I'm able to open ANY folder/directory in my C drive (or any other drive) and in years I never had anything "invade" my system because of this (as long as I have a good firewall/anti malware proggies installed of course and proper safety practices in action). In Windows 7 even if you are logging as Administrator it seems this is not possible and requires further tweaking which is a hassle.

UAC is there for a damn good reason, anyone will tell you that running as full administrator all the time is not a good idea.

Having said that, your probably going to do it anyway, and it's your machine, so more power to ya, follow OS's instructions and you will have what you want, but here is some reading material.

Non Admin - Why Non Admin

I've been using Windows well forever, there is no location in Windows 7 that you cannot access. aside from "System Volume Information" which cannot be accessed in Windows XP either. The locations you are trying to access are merely junction points YOU DO NOT NEED ACCESS TO THESE. I've said it countless times. How many times do I have to say until everyone gets it out of there head they need to access them?

There is no location you cannot access everything is readable.*
Go on tell me the folder you cannot access.

* Only user that are granted Administrative powers can access other user's personal directories.

I agree with logicearth here - there are indeed "folders" in Windows 7 that one cannot open, but usually these are not real folders, but junctions, put in place for compatibility reasons. In this case it's quite normal that one cannot open them - there is nothing to open. The reason for them is that some programs use the old Windows folder structure literally hard-coded (as opposed to using the environmental variables) and thus require something like "C:\Documents and Settings\..." (instead of "%HOMEPATH%").

Additionally, many programs want to write to C:\Program Files\... and sometimes they don't have permission, so instead they write to the VirtualStore folders in the C:\User\ tree.

What I'm getting to is, Windows 7 has a slightly different folder structure compared to XP, one has to learn it prior to tinkering. I think if you would tell us exactly which folder you want to access, we'll be able to help you with your specific issues instead of giving general ideas.

I agree with most of what has been said here. But hey the OP wants access to everything then give him access.


Right click on the C drive in explorer and select Properties. Go to the security tab then edit and add your user account if it isn't already there and give it FULL control. Then go to Advanced and replace all permissions on all child objects with the permissions of your admin account.


Have fun doing a re-install of the OS in about 2-3 weeks.