Win 7,, Access is denied ??????

[dc9mm3]

I want to look at my" documents and setting" folder but windows pops up a message ACCESS IS DENIED I cant figure out how to turn this off. I rebuilt PC and have all my favorates for internet explorer saved to a file and i want to copy and paste those into my favortes folder which i believe is in the document and setting sub folder. I have been look at all the security settings but cant figure out how to let windows access these files. In fact i want to be able to access ANY file i want. This is crazy.

 

[Red Squirrel]

yep this is a known issue and I ran into it the other day with Vista, I assume 7 does the same. it encrypts it by default! The only way to get the files is to be logged in on that installation. If it's BSODing or not booting, then yeah... don't know if it's recoverable without cracking it. (there may be tools available, I have not looked).

 

[SparkyJJO]

Try taking ownership of it. Right click - properties - security - add yourself. You need to be elevated as admin to be able to do it.

*should* work but no guarantees. I've done it on other systems before, just not in win7 yet.

 

[dc9mm3]

That worked Sparky, thanks. Seems strange access would be denied for me but i guess it didnt think i was the owner. LOL. Iam coming from XP so just trying to figure this thing out.

 

[postmortemIA]

just so you know:

stuff is no longer in documents and settings, but in "users" directory since vista.
documents and settings is there for compatibility reasons; it is just a link to users directory

 

[dc9mm3]

Yea i figured it out that nothing is actually in the documents/settings folder but now under users.

 

[RebateMonger]

it encrypts it by default!

Nothing is being encrypted. The NTFS file system tries to prevent access to data that belongs to accounts other than your own. It does this using NTFS file security settings that may need to be changed when files are brought to a new system.

 

[Red Squirrel]

just so you know:

stuff is no longer in documents and settings, but in "users" directory since vista.
documents and settings is there for compatibility reasons; it is just a link to users directory

Really? That is good to know... is documents and settings kinda like a symlink of some sort? Maybe why I had trouble getting to the files from another system (even after trying to take ownership and all that). Figured it used some kind of encryption, as it is possible to encrypt through the file system (manually).

 

[ViRGE]

is documents and settings kinda like a symlink of some sort?

Exactly. It's a special kind of symlink that keeps applications sane, but Explorer won't follow the links.