All folders on hard drives somehow become read-only?

[Kadence]

I have no idea how or exactly when this happened, but it seems that somehow all the folders on my hard drives have become read only. When I right-click on folder properties for a folder, the "Read-Only (Only applies to files in folder)" box is checked, and while I obviously couldn't verify all my folders, the box was checked for every folder on each hard drive I did look at.

How can I undo this for all the folders on a hard drive?

Also are there any folders, like system folders, that I should leave as Read Only.

 

[techs]

All my folders are read only also.
Stop. Don't mess with the attributes.
Back away slowly from the computer and don't do anything until you answer why it is you think you need to change the attributes.

 

[RebateMonger]

This is normal behavior for XP and Vista.
Unless it is causing a problem, I suggest leaving it alone. All of the folders on all of my PCs show "Read Only" also. I've never seen a case where it needed to be changed.

 

[Kadence]

Thanks. I think the issue I had was caused by UAC somehow being turned on. It was off for months, don't know how it got turned on.

Perhaps because of UAC+read only folders, I was unable to edit code files in Dreamweaver (though I had many other documents that I could edit in other programs). I've turned UAC off and the issue seems to be gone now.

Does a computer crash turn UAC on or something? My computer crashed recently, don't know if that had anything to do with UAC being turned on without me knowing.