Windows 7 - How to remove lock icon from folders?

**mitchell65** · 05-18-2010

Quote: Originally Posted by cmdahome

I've been working with a Win 7 box ever since I got our Technet test copy nearly 6 months ago, and was really impressed with the O/S until I began to delve into the folder security and permissions.
I've been messing around with folder permissions for years; WinNT, Win2k, WInXP, (avoided Vista like the plague), but I CANNOT figure this Win 7 schema out.
I might as well be using a MAC!!

If I try to 'save as' a picture (attached to an email), the dialogue box that opens up only shows 'my pictures' folders (and shortcuts), both of which are locked and will not allow me to save to them. I have to create a separate folder somewhere else and browse to it to save my file.

My installation was started from a BLANK drive; a clean install of Win 7 Ultimate, yet I have all these locked folders that I can't get into as a user (who is a member of administrators).

I've been reading all these posts, and find that even the so called Win 7 'gurus' are really stumped by these issues.
Seriously considering a re-install to Win XP and telling M/S to shove it on Win 7!!

I think you have found the magic "Junction Points" on Win 7. To save a lot of typing have a look at this thread. Putting "Junction Points" in the search box will reveal much more!
unhide system file and Documents and Settings

**fseal** · 05-18-2010

Yeah, there's a reason MS had never used junctions in publicly visible areas in their desktop OSes before. They are confusing as hell to 99.999% of users.

They made a really hard descision to try to fix the Documents and Settings issue. I /think/ they did the right thing for the long term, but this transition period where there are multiple paths to the /users folder to maintain backwards compatibility with older (broken) apps is a support nightmare

Windows 7 - How to remove lock icon from folders?

How to remove lock icon from folders? problems?