Padlocked files only APPEAR in creating application

This has happened twice now and really is bugging me.

I have downloaded CamStudio -- a video recording app -- which is doing something very strange. I would have thought it was CamStudio's fault, except that another app, an IDE, was doing the same thing yesterday, so I think it is something wrong with my setup.

When I create a video file through CamStudio, it asks me where I want to save it. It does save the file, however the file will not appear anywhere EXCEPT inside CamStudio.

In other words, if you are looking at the folder through the Save As dialog in CamStudio, the file is there, with a padlock icon. If you are looking at it through normal explorer, it will not be there. It's not a hidden file. It's not on a network. It doesn't matter where I save the file.

You can see the file through CamStudio's Save dialog, but you can't copy/paste it out -- Windows just complains that the file is "no longer there". If you try changing ownership, you get an error message that the ownership cannot be changed because the file doesn't exist.

But. It. Does.

Command Prompt doesn't show it, administrator or not. /takeown doesn't work.


I should note that I *can* get around this, if I run CamStudio as Administrator -- my file doesn't appear, but newly saved files are created as normal.

But I really shouldn't be having to grant this program special privileges just to save a file.

It's almost as if it's running CamStudio under a different user name, but there isn't one. This is a single-user machine (not counting the inactive guest account). I don't get it.

uninstall and re-install under compatibility mode camstudio is not supported under win7

Um... that does work but...

I'm not entirely satisfied yet. What is actually going on here? How can I get my file back (the one I already saved?) It's right there on my hard drive, I'm an administrator -- the only user on the machine. I should be able to access it.

Also, why can I not find anyone else complaining about similar CamStudio difficulties in Windows 7?

ok , go to the file you have already saved ,right click>properties>security>edit permissions, set all to "allow" as to why more people are not complaining im afraid i do not know hope this helps in someway

Can't change the permissions (they're all disabled) -- but compatibility mode has restored some sense of reality, so thanks anyway.

ok, glad we could help a little

I had the same problem as lightspeed has, i.e. I could not see the *.avi file in the camstudio directory (where it should not have been anyway, but that's a secondary issue!) through the windows explorer.
However, I found a solution on this:
You need to behave as an application, which owns full access rights to the file (i.e. of camstudio in this case).
So, open a camstudio application, e.g. swf producer. Then chose
File>Open...
rightclick the now visible *.avi file in question
chose Delete
The file will be moved into the trash. And it will loose camstudio's exclusive ownersship. This means it becomes visible in the trash folder, without the padlock icon! And from here you can copy/move it to wherever you wish. The file has become just an ordinary file which you can open at its new locatrion by any suitable application, e.g. the WMP or VirtualDub.

I have the same problem, only not with the padlock issue, my file was not appearing at all. I found it in the dropdown box when I open swf producer as pebbly mentioned. I saved it to my desktop but it won't play. I'll keep playing with it

Whether or not marked with a padlock, the file has been created by camstudio under its exclusive ownership and for its exclusive use, thereby disregarding any user wishes for a specific save_as location. That is why your file was not appearing at all.

You have to manage to get the file free from the excluxive ownership of camstudio (cf. my comment some 4 weeks ago). This requires that you actually delete the file from within the Open_As menu of a casmstudio application. It's only by this brutal method that camstudio refrains from its ownership, thereby allowing for the windows typical two-step deletion process: 1. move a to-be-deleted file into the trash and 2. offer it there to the user for further treatment (e.g. final deletion ("empty trash"), recovery, etc.).
The trick is that, to allow for the second step, the file must, and will, become visible to the user - and it's only the trash where he can interfere and save the file to anywhere else. Outside the trash he can then treat it as any other "ordinary" file.

So, follow my recipe... and good luck!

Ok, this was happening to me as well. So I started playing around with Windows Explorer in Windows 7 for a little bit and found something that works better than the delete trick. If you go to the Camstudio folder where the videos are being automatically saved in Windows Explorer, look at the top and you will see something called "Compatibility Files". Click on that and then the files will show up in Windows Explorer. You can now copy and paste those files wherever you want.