Is moving My Documents safe?

[DoubleGlazed]

Hi, I want to move My Documents folder to another partition (D:\) but I'm wondering if I do will other users on the computer now be able to access the contents?

 

[Prof Kerfuffle]

Yes other users will be able to read, write and change your files unless you have protected. I protect my work by placing them on a password protected portable hard disk. Do you have Windows 7 Ultimate?

 

[DoubleGlazed]

Windows 7 Professional. So as it is only I can access the files but as soon as I move them they are no longer protected by Windows, is that right?

Can I not right-click and change security settings?

 

[DeaconFrost]

I was under the impression that if you move the folder location properly, the permissions will follow it.

 

[Prof Kerfuffle]

Windows 7 Professional. So as it is only I can access the files but as soon as I move them they are no longer protected by Windows, is that right?

Can I not right-click and change security settings?

Yes you can on the hdd or the files to prevent other users opening them.

If you were on Ultimate you could encrypt the partition using Bitlocker.

Try this TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux

 

[Prof Kerfuffle]

I was under the impression that if you move the folder location properly, the permissions will follow it.

That depends where and if your moving the file, it may be changed to a child folder (which doesn't usually inherit the files permission properties) not a parent folder if the other location has different permissions and on partition D:/ the other partition it is most likely to change its permissions

 

[DeaconFrost]

Everything I'm reading says that when you redirect the folder properly, the permissions go along with it.

 

[kenC]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

How to do it.

 

[DoubleGlazed]

OK I'm a bit confused now. Is this the proper way to change location:
Right-click My Document -> Properties -> Location?

I've moved it from "C:\Users\DoubleGlazed\Documents" to "D:\Users\DoubleGlazed\Documents" and noticed that the Security tab has Read, Write and Execute permissions for Users group which wasn't there before.

So the question is if i set the permissions correctly (remove Users group) is this only applicable to Windows 7 or will the permissions hold true for any OS trying to access the drive?

 

[Prof Kerfuffle]

For any Windows edition it applies.

Windows 7 Take Ownership & Grant Permissions to Access Files & Folder

You need to take ownership *username*, keep the group users and give them no rights and give you all the rights for the file.

The best way to completely transfer a file with all properties is /xcopy in cmd. But dragging and dropping works the same but you have to change the owners and security information

 

[MacGyvr]

Wow...I'm not even going to try...what a mess. All I'll say is DeaconFrost is correct.

 

[DoubleGlazed]

Ok thanks for all the help. I think I solved it by moving the location in the properties menu and modifying the security permissions.

One last thing, I assume the security permissions only apply to Windows then, so for example if I mounted the drive in Ubuntu I could view all the folders and files no matter what the Windows permissions where. Is that correct?

 

[Cluent]

Everything I'm reading says that when you redirect the folder properly, the permissions go along with it.

Where did you read this? When I move the files, they inherit properties from new drive.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Where did you read this? When I move the files, they inherit properties from new drive.

On here, when people insist on making this far more complicated, rather than just changing where their libraries point. I've never done it myself, as there's no reason for me to do so.

 

[gregrocker]

From what I've seen lately we've mostly stopped advising to Move user shell folders after various issues with imaging and permissioning kept coming up.

I would simply copy them to the new location, then rightclick to add to the related Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums.
Then delete the contents of the C user folder you've copied and relinked. You will need to reset permissions on the folder since it is no longer the Shell folder abandoned on C but a satellite copy.