read-only files

I was running dualboot with vista64 and win764 on my main HDD and then I had them both pointing to a secondary HDD for all of my personal files, the problem is that I think 7 made everything on my secondary drive read-only and no matter what I do I cannot change them back so that I can edit files in vista. I had a problem with my Quickcam and a few other small issues with RC 7100 so I deleted the partition it was on and expanded the vista partion, but still cannot edit files.

Ownership & Permission Issues Buddy!!!

Check in Vista whether u have proper Ownership and Permissions to modify the file....

Yep I have admin and owner, and it does let me deselect read-only and it looks as if it change the atributes but as soon as you close and reopen they are set right back to read-only

make sure u dont have any groups or usernames in there that are a bunch of letters and numbers. if ya do it will fail to change permissions. If you give the everyone group full controll from the win7 machine it might work, but is very unsecure.

I dont see any users other than me and the win7 partition is gone, baby gone

That just may be another good place to use the "Take Ownership" script.

I've found it absolutely a "MUST HAVE" add-on to Vista or Win-7, since finding it on this forum.

I now install it on every Vista PC that I work on. With it, you can Take Ownership of any file or folder on your HD.

Can't find it? Well, here it is!

InstallTakeOwnership.reg - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage
* Someone complained that this was a Copyrighted file so Box.net removed it.
Sorry, I guess you'll have to find it elsewhere.


After running the script on your Vista or Win-7 PC, you can right click on any file or folder and from the drop-down context menu, you can select "Take Ownership" of that file or folder.

Taking Ownership of a folder, for instance, also gives you ownership of all the files and even sub-folders contained therein.

I wish I'd had something like that for XP.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

Take Ownership script FTW !

not FTW the files are still read-only

the main reason for this is that one of my games (FC2) is getting a access denied error when I try to run the benchmark tool

I am experiencing the same issue as OP. I've verified that all permissions are indeed correct. I can successfully apply changes to the Read-Only status of all files but upon completion they silently revert back to Read-Only.

I was able to fix the problem by re-Locating my personal directories i.e. documents, music, pictures....etc. to my main drive and the formatting the secondary drive and then moving the directories back

are you saying formatting is part of the solution?

Remove Read Only Microsoft Windows 7

Ok, One question to any that may be able to answer.

I have microsoft 7... I have several files that have been made read only in my program files. I have tried via the cmd prmpt and been met with access denied ect. I need to figure out just how to change a file from read only to not..... it is affecting some addons with a game I play.

attrib -r -s C:\>\program files \ world of warcraft \ wtf

been trying to get the wtf folder in the world of warcraft folder from being read only I think the input in cmd is correct if I am worng let me know. I have just started dabbling in computers. Also will it change all the folders assoc with this one? Like the sub folders that reside within?

I need to do the same with the interface folder as well. If anyone can help please I beg of you. its been 547 days since a post was made here just hope that I can get some answers. I did call microsoft they said their was a way but wanted a one time charge of 79.00us or 119.00 for a yr subscription to their services....