Windows 7: Unable to rename folder

Bily · 31 Jan 2010

My husband won't even let me touch his computer.

Quote:

Sounds as though you have a very wise husband.

Heh, you got that right.

Muad Dib · 31 Jan 2010

Separate computers are like separate toothbrushes. You could get by with just one, but who the hell would want to given the price of a toothbrush?

ralphjramirez · 31 Jan 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by WindowsStar

@ralphjramirez: I was looking for a several articles I read back when Windows NT was becoming a popular OS, but I could not find them. I will do my best to share what Microsoft had in mind when they created Windows NT and how the file system would work. Windows NT was the first OS that did not have DOS as the underlying OS for the GUI. Windows NT is an all-in-one OS no DOS.

DOS had a lot of limitations one of which was a limitation on how many files or folders you could have off the ROOT of C:/ This problem carried over in to Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and influenced the development of Windows 95. Microsoft created a C:/Program Files folder to install all programs into. This change was to stop people from installing software on the ROOT of C:/ and avoid the file and folder limitation of ROOT of C:/ They also created special folders for the OS and for system files etc. The other reason they did this was to provide some organization to the hierarchy of the file system. This also helped because Microsoft started the move from .CFG, .SYS and .INI files for keeping configuration settings and move them to the Registry. Windows 95 became a hybrid OS booting with DOS in 16bit and running Windows in a sort of 32bit mode. Since the underlying OS was DOS and DOS has a limitation on how many files can be on the ROOT of C:/ moving everything off the ROOT of C:/ helped people with the problem of filling up the ROOT of C:/ and then having some very strange problems. Plus with the Internet in its infancy many could not figure out why things were not working. (Sorry trying to keep it short). Now on to Windows NT the predecessor to Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft had already established the C:/Program Files and special folders for the OS and System files so they just kept up with the theme; however a new part of Windows NT was security. Now you could control what could be read or executed or saved etc. etc. Microsoft took a long time to work out how permission would be set and one of them was that a standard user would NOT have full access to the ROOT of C:/ and that software would be installed in C:/Program Files so standard users would get the correct permissions to use the software. (Note: This did not go as planned, so we have many other issues with this, because programmers did not and still DO NOT follow the Microsoft Programming rules. That is a whole other topic I will not get into here.). This brings us to why you don’t want to save files or make folders off the ROOT of C:/ If you want to install a program it goes into C:/Program Files, if you want to store data it goes into C:/Documents and Settings (before Windows 7) and C:/Users/<username>/Documents (Windows 7). If you want to store any data any way you want then you can use a D:/, USB drive etc. and save/create anything anyway you want.

So the biggest problems you will have saving off the ROOT of C:/ is permissions. You may also have problems because of sloppy programming expecting software to be in C:/Program Files. Your folder renaming issue may have been part of this as well.

Please Note: That is just the basics of how all this works it is written here to be extremely brief.

I hope that helps.

Hi WindowStar,

Wow, that is some real detail that I find very interesting, thank you so much. I can probably make changes fairly easily. All programs are in the programs folder so that much is OK. Now I will begin to better organize and place my other folders appropriately. I am going to have to read up on Permissions before I make changes to make sure this doesn't bite me later on.

I have copied your information and created a word document so I can easily/quickly refer to your excellent detailed information.

Thanks again for all your time you spent helping me out.

Best Regards..................Ralph

WindowsStar · 31 Jan 2010

@ralphjramirez
Yes please be very careful with permissions and especially taking ownership. I see many people here playing with that and they get into a lot of trouble quickly.

I am glad I can help, and I can learn while I am here too, that is what it is all about.

bluscarab · 22 May 2012

I know old post but does anyone have a fix yet? I have 434 computers here of which only the Windows 7 stations randomly exhibits this problem. XP, 2003 server, 2000 server and even an old NT4 server do not exhibit this behavior. I have tried disabling Windows 7 search and index, thumbnail generator and checked all permissions. It happens whether folder is on a network server or local hard drive or separate partition on the local hard drive. It is VERY RANDOM. Can go for months without a problem and then suddenly it occurs for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes it happens for the entire week. Its driving me nuts. I have also noticed this on my mom's computer at home with no domain or server system. I have also found this bug on display laptops at Best Buy and Costco.

Why did they have to reinvent the wheel?

UsernameIssues · 22 May 2012

Welcome to the Seven Forums.

See this post - just below the video - for a program named Unlocker.

Windows 7: Unable to rename folder

Unable to rename folder problems?