How to make contents of C:\Windows\System32\Tasks visible?

I want to be able to see (recursively) the contents of C:\Windows\System32\Tasks without using either explorer or the 'dir' command (or the Task Scheduler itself). For example, when I use emacs as administrator I can see only a few directories, and not even the top-level files. This persists even after I change permissions to "full control" for administrators. Another file manager also fails. However, 7zip can see all that stuff.

Ultimately, I only want to be able to look at the contents of the xml files, but I can't see them in a text editor.

I note that I can use explorer to copy the xml file to a non-protected location and look at it there, but that is not the answer I'm seeking.

Apparently, the failing methods are using a different method to list directories than the losing methods. Any idea how to fix that? (Obviously, I can file a bug report with the losers, but I am looking for some permissions I can change, or at least understand exactly why this is happening.)

I just want to avoid having to remember special techniques for doing standard things with special files. Windows has so many special kludges, it's chaos trying to remember every special procedure.

Thanks.

--peter

You should see it in a text editor but a web browser normally shows it correctly

Thanks.

Ah, well, the key word is "should." As I mentioned, I am NOT seeing it in a text editor. Indeed FF does work to see it. I am not, however, looking for workarounds, I am looking for a way to fix MS special nonsense so I can at least see the stuff in my text editor.

In MS Windows 7, set permissions to "Full Control" for EVERYBODY,temporarily. and then check your editor. If that does not work, Id assume there is problem with your EMACS configuration for .XML files.

Alternatively, create and save an ordinary .txt file with EMACS and save in ..\TASKS, and see if this editor can see to open it.

Thanks. That's a good idea. The danger, however, is that it may be difficult to roll back the permissions changes. In my experience, sometimes there are special permissions hacks that do not show up in what you see in the UI.

It's dangerous because apparently, Task Scheduler refuses to run tasks that it thinks may have been tampered with, as a security measure.

Also, it's not just emacs, it's also another file manager I have. BTW, although the task files are xml files, they do not have a .xml extension. Also, the problem is not just that xml files cannot be looked at, almost all folders are not visible, so it has nothing to do with settings for xml, and in any case, emacs doesn't care what the file extension is.

You can use cmd line to see tasks Batch files - SCHTASKS

Thank you. Yes, I know that. I am looking for the reason I cannot traverse the directory structure with certain tools, and/or how to fix that. It is probably some kind of permission problem. However, it could be because MS added a new frob to the read directory API, and these older progs are not using the new frob.

I am, however, interested ultimately in editing the xml. The reason is that I need to clone my installation to two other computers. From what I read, this will break some tasks, so I will need to edit the tasks in a text editor (i.e. the place where the computer name and/or username appears). Now it's true that that can be done by copying using x, to place, y, editing y, importing to z, etc. But, all those workarounds are just that -- kludges because windows is not letting me see the directory tree with these other two tools, despite the fact that they work everywhere else so far, as long as I fix permissions. In fact, usually they work better than explorer, since explorer has even more special kludges built in to make things even more opaque, so that directories appear to exist that don't, and stuff appears to be in directories that isn't.