grey checkmark in read-only checkbox

[treddie2001]

Howdie.

Can anyone explain the behavior of the read-only checkbox in a folder's properties? When a folder is NOT read-only, I would assume its read-only checkbox should be unchecked. However I find that it is always a grayed-out checkmark. If I un-check the box and click Apply/OK, when I reopen properties it is back to being a gray checkmark. I thought it might mean that a subfolder or a file inside might be read-only, but this is not the case.

 

[F5ing]

Is the folder itself a subfolder of a folder that's readonly?

 

[Brink]

Hello Treddie, and welcome to Seven Forums.

A checked grayed out "Hidden" box indicates that this is a hidden protected operating system file that also is set with the "system" attribute. You do not want to unhide it by removing the "system" and "hidden" attribute of this folder if it is.

To be certain, what's the full path of this folder?

 

[treddie2001]

Thank you for your replies!

Brink > Actually, the folders and files are not system files and are not necessarily located on the system drive. They are on my personal drives both internal and removable. A typical pathname might be, "d:\My Files\Latest Projects\RCOM\Figure1.jpg". None of the these files were ever set to read-only nor can any of the checkboxes be made to be unchecked. They always revert back to checked.

Also, all rights and permissions are Admin and I am logged in as Admin.

sibbel > No, all folders and files in all the paths are read/write.

 

[F5ing]

Do you have full rights to this particular folder? Are you the owner?

 

[treddie2001]

All rights are admin, and I am logged in as admin.

 

[F5ing]

All rights are admin, and I am logged in as admin.

Are you just using an account that is simply a member of the administrators group?

 

[treddie2001]

That's possible. I assumed that if I was a member of admin, then I had all the rights and privileges of the admin group...that essentially the admin group was the "owner" of the system, and therefore, any account in admin owned the system at the moment.

 

[F5ing]

You might try right-clicking that suspect folder, select properties, and check out the security tab. Click on your username to see what rights you've got. Click Advanced and you see the details about ownership.

Is this folder on a disk that was once installed in another computer?

 

[treddie2001]

I have "Full Control".

Is this folder on a disk that was once installed in another computer?

Some of the folders have been copied over, but many are new.

 

[F5ing]

Did you look to see who the owner was?

There's also another button you can select to see what your effective permissions are.

 

[DavidE]

This tutorial should help with taking ownership.
Look at option 2.

Take Ownership of file - Vista Forums

 

[treddie2001]

Thanks for the help, but I think the issue is not what you are both thinking. The problem is not ownership of any specific folder or file, but the fact that the gray checkbox is present for ALL folders and files regardless of volume (drive or packet-writable media). In addition, the gray check mark has absolutely no effect...I can write to the file, change a folder or file name, move files and folders, all without issue. I am admin, I am owner, my rights and permissions AND effective permissions are all full control. This is sounding more and more like a system bug, to me.

 

[DavidE]

You could run the System File Checker and see if it finds any problems.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[treddie2001]

Well, it said it found some damaged files, but also says it repaired them. I rebooted, but same problem.

 

[DavidE]

You may need to run it up to 3 times, re-booting after each run to fix all issues.

 

[treddie2001]

Will give that a try.

Also, discovered that the problem is more extensive than I thought. Not only can I not force a cleared checkbox, I can't force it to a solid black check either. Applying, OKing out then going back into properties shows that the gray check mark comes back. So the control is just dead.

 

[HammerHead]

Not Unusal

Treddie here is an interesting read on "read only" in win 7.

Fixing the Windows 7 Read-Only Folder Blues « IT Expert Voice

 

[HammerHead]

Folder -- read only

The way I am reading these articles it seems that the read only attrib on a folder doesn't mean anything. If that is so why is it there? MS would have to answer that. Here is one of their very own support docs.



You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

 

[treddie2001]

DavidW7ncus > 3 tries and no-go.

Thanks Hammerhead for the info. That explains all I need to know.

UnFing believable that MS sits back with their arms folded, essentially giving the finger to their customer base once again. And in the same vein as going to the Start button to shut your computer down, they create a meaningless little checkbox that offers zero security AND slows down network traffic. It may not look like it, but I think MS's days are numbered. People will only take so much and when MS least expects it, they'll find their market share start to dwindle away.

OK...That's my rant for the day.

Anyway, thank you to everybody for taking the time to reply to my problem.