Need administrator permisson for most folders most of the time

[macnab]

I am an administrator.
UAC is default setting.
Using MSSE.

I can't drag and drop without being asked for administrator permission.
Some apps. such as Bulk Rename Utility fail in certain folders, work in others. Can't work out what setting affects this. (It's not Sharing.) For example, if a I have a bunch of files to rename, sometimes I have to move them to another folder, rename them, and then mpove them back again.
If I create a new folder I have to "visit" it in Explorer before I can do anything with it.

It drives me bananas.

EDIT: It seems the following is true for "problem" folders - In Properties - Security the permissions are greyed out, so I cannot change them. The parent folder is not. (I see now that greyed out just means inherited.")

 

[ruste84]

Hello macnab. Have you lowered the UAC on the machine before making any folder changes? Also, does your admin account have permissions to the folders in question?

 

[macnab]

My UAC has always been at default level. Everything was fine until the day I re-installed Windows. From then on it wanted administrator permission to work with folders. When it asks for permission I just click OK and it goes ahead and does it, it knows that I am an administrator.

If I right-click on a folder Delete, Rename and New Folder show that you have to be an administrator to do this. When it asks for permission I just click OK, no sweat. But it means that a sisgnificant proportion of my software must be set to "Run as administrator", or they fail. And even delete all the files in the folder!!

Lowering the level one step just doesn't put the desktop in security mode, it will still want permission.

 

[Brink]

Hello Macnab,

Is this happening in system folders by chance?

If so, then this is normal. System folders are protected, so you cannot copy to, move to, or delete anything in system folders without being prompted by UAC to approve first (ex: click on Continue or Yes).

By default, you can only do what you like in your "C:\Users\(user-name)" folders and "C:\Public" folders without being prompted by UAC.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[macnab]

Unfortunately these are data folders on different HDDs. More than one.

Seeing as one of the ideas of the UAC is to prevent making changes that affect other users (even though there aren't any) such as renaming somebody else's files, maybe I should make the problem apps (such as Bulk Rename Utility) run as administrator.

 

[Brink]

You might see if using the "Take Ownership" context menu added from the tutorial below may help with access of these problem folders.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html
​

Using "Run as administrator" on the Bulk Rename program should give it the elevated rights it needs for access.

 

[macnab]

Had a look at the tutorials. Will it make a difference changing ownership from Administrators to my logon, seeing as I am an administrator?

 

[Brink]

Since you are an administrator, not really other than only you instead of all administrators.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Had a friends computer do this. Tried pretty much everything in the book to fix it. Nope. He had AOL desktop installed that I pretty much concluded was the culprit. Could do anything while inside it. But once that program closed, back to using run as administrator. Not 100% AOL was the culprit but spent to many days hunting for the fix so ended up doing a clean install. Back to normal. He now logs onto AOL through his browser. Better to reinstall than spend to much time hoping for a fix.

 

[macnab]

@Bearcatrp: My problems started when I did a clean install. Of course, the 3 data HDDs were still there, could hardly re-install them.

Will give Run as administrator a go to apps as they gives problems.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Is this problem across all hard drives? Is the issue only on the other drives, not the reinstalled drive? Did you have your system password protected before you reinstalled? If so, did you just reinstall or did you remove the password protection BEFORE reinstalling?

 

[macnab]

I have 4 physical drives. One for system and apps, 3 for data.

Problem is across all 3 data drives. No problem with boot drive.

I did a clean install to boot drive. When I was ready I booted with Partition Wizard boot-disk and deleted the partition. I created a partition as part of install. (New motherboard, upgraded from 32-bit to 64-bit.)

Data drives were not touched when re-installing. On first boot Windows found the drives there, filled with data.

 

[macnab]

I am the only user, no-one else in the house. Maybe, for the 3 data drives, I should give EVERYONE full access? That will solve the problem, if not identify it.

 

[Brink]

You could try taking ownership of the drives first. If that doesn't help, then setting Everyone full access should.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Take baby steps so do one drive (permissions) and see what happens. Have found out the hard way when reinstalling the OS, first remove all passwords, then do the reinstall. Your other drives wants your old info. By chance, did you give your computer a different name when reinstalling? If your the only user, would suggest give permissions to you and admin only. If others use that data on the other hard drives, let all users have access.

 

[macnab]

Will do it baby-steps. And I have backups of all 3 drives as well. I mirror them on a remote PC with a wireless link and FreeFileSync (similar to SyncToy.) Will have to do them also otherwise they are hardly plug and play replacements.

Going away for a week, so won't be able do experiment for a while.

When installing I let Windows set the name for the PC - it changed it from all capital letters to title-case this time, so yes, PC name changed. And I used a different password!!

Should I take ownership of the System Volume Information?

Have written up the "remove passwords" in my "Windows bible."