How can I convince Windows 7 that I (as Administrator) should have permission? All I get is "access is denied". Is there any procedure to allow me, as the owner and only user of my computer, to use it? rob65803

Are you trying to get into c:\documents and settings?It's not actually there, thus no permissions. Try going to c:\usersIf it's not 'documents and settings' but somewhere else, list that. There are work arounds, but it removes what file security is in place.

If it's not one of the old XP-type locations (junctions) that you are being denied access to, try this: To take ownership of a folder, right-click the folder, select Properties > Security Tab > Advanced at the bottom > Owner Tab > Edit > Highlight your username and put a tick in Replace owner on sub containers and Apply > OK. You will only have the Replace owner on subcontainers box for folders not files. Click Yes when you receive the Security pop-up window then click OK to the Close/Reopen message. Make a note of the previous owner in case you want to change it back. Now go back to the Properties > Security Tab. Click Edit > Add. Type in your User Account Name in the box under Enter the objects name to select. Click on Check Names > OK. Click on your User Account Name to highlight it. Check the box for Full Control > Apply and OK etc.

Many Thanks, It worked perfect on my 32bit. I'll switch over to my 64bit and change it. Thank you soo much!! rob65803

i gained access by right clicking-->properties-->permissions--> and deleting the permission "deny, everyone, view contents" i think, im in windows xp right now so i going off memory WHY WOULD I NOT HAVE ACCESS TO MY OWN FILES ON MY OWN COMPUTER???????????????????????? TELL ME THIS MICROSOFT!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE F*** WERE YOU THINKING??????????????? im pretty sure that viewing the cookies folder isnt going to make my computer explode... im serious i want an official microsoft answer

Hey Luke,you dont need to go crazy like that and use those words for your questions....why would you want to go through cookies folder its useless,and moreover i think in terms of security that is convinient to not allow viewing,i must confess i 've tried a couple times before to delete cookies but you know what i thought microsoft harden that part for some good reason,cookies can be very harmful(open doors) if not managed by good ppl...thats alli just dont know why many ppl is complaining about windows security confirmations and stuff,in old times everyone used to complaint about the lack of security and tons of vulnerabilities windows had ,now we have a stable OS and much more secure(not a pain in the neck at all ,just need to confirm with a couple clicks and thats it),now we have many users saying why is this why is that,i just dont get it, im really satisfied with 7 and i really wish it even more secure if possible hehe i dont mind surfing safer and with more privacy at all ;)Regards ,RR

firstly, cookies are harmless- open one and see, delete as many as you want. all they do is remember user names on websites and such. --------------- secondly, denying an administrator access to the cookies folder, or any other folder, will NOT make the computer secure especially since you can access the folder by typing a command into run (i forget it now) or by simply deleting the permission (which is what i did) ---------------- so microsoft basically inconveniences the average user while making the computer more "secure" ... and hackers laugh.. not that they'd care about cookies anyway. good job microsoft :) ------------------ as for user account control, its pathetic. I know a computer security specialist who, along with the rest of the open source community, laughs at what MS calls secure. most secure operating system? i think not steve ballmer. ever heard of linux; you know that one operating that, oh i dont know, NOBODY makes virus's for. -------------- i am more curious to why documents and setting is restricted, especially when you can get to the contents through the users folder. it is simply pointless. i downloaded a file to a folder in "documents" and during the process i deleted the Libraries because i found them useless to me (although i do think they are a good idea for most people) and taking up space on the side panel of explorer. when the download finished i went to retrieve it by going through the users folder and such, to my utter confusion i couldnt access the folder, i had to boot into XP and get it in its windows explorer on my W7 partition. i later found out how to delete the permission but i am confused why it was there at all. most likely i simply wasnt accessing it the way W7 thought i was supposed to but the question remains to why it was there. -------------- windows 7 (and vista) seems to try to prevent user fu.. er.. mess ups where in older windows OS's if the user messed up then an error popped up to explain it. its hard to explain but an example is why tasks become non responsive so often in vista (and W7), if you notice they happen very quietly (without warning/chance to open task manger) where in XP the computer slows for awhile and etc but 90% of the time they become responsive again. i THINK that windows will automatically end the task to prevent user confusion (if you notice when a task becomes non responsive they tend to click everything and make it even worse) this is just my theory and it is worded very poorly but hopefully you understand what im saying --------------- i guess what i mean is that windows 7/vista is like the new Lexus with all these features that do everything for you: park your car for you, day time running head lights, automatic braking during a crash, and has the thing that beeps if you dont put your seatbelt on. where XP is the old car that the driver is in FULL control of the car and the car depends on the drivers skill level. ------------- i prefer XP for that reason: i want to be in control of my computer, i simply wish that W7/vista offered more options to give me that control AND put them in clear view for me. -------------- i still want a MS official answer --------------- i am also very curious to why W7 uses 7-8% CPU at idle and it is not reported under the lists of processes... very suspicious, and no its not a virus ------------------ i will end by saying this: W7>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>vista --------------

firstly, cookies are harmless- open one and see, delete as many as you want. all they do is remember user names on websites and such. --------------- secondly, denying an administrator access to the cookies folder, or any other folder, will NOT make the computer secure especially since you can access the folder by typing a command into run (i forget it now) or by simply deleting the permission (which is what i did) ---------------- so microsoft basically inconveniences the average user while making the computer more "secure" ... and hackers laugh.. not that they'd care about cookies anyway. good job microsoft :) ------------------ as for user account control, its pathetic. I know a computer security specialist who, along with the rest of the open source community, laughs at what MS calls secure. most secure operating system? i think not steve ballmer. ever heard of linux; you know that one operating that, oh i dont know, NOBODY makes virus's for. -------------- i am more curious to why documents and setting is restricted, especially when you can get to the contents through the users folder. it is simply pointless. i downloaded a file to a folder in "documents" and during the process i deleted the Libraries because i found them useless to me (although i do think they are a good idea for most people) and taking up space on the side panel of explorer. when the download finished i went to retrieve it by going through the users folder and such, to my utter confusion i couldnt access the folder, i had to boot into XP and get it in its windows explorer on my W7 partition. i later found out how to delete the permission but i am confused why it was there at all. most likely i simply wasnt accessing it the way W7 thought i was supposed to but the question remains to why it was there. -------------- windows 7 (and vista) seems to try to prevent user fu.. er.. mess ups where in older windows OS's if the user messed up then an error popped up to explain it. its hard to explain but an example is why tasks become non responsive so often in vista (and W7), if you notice they happen very quietly (without warning/chance to open task manger) where in XP the computer slows for awhile and etc but 90% of the time they become responsive again. i THINK that windows will automatically end the task to prevent user confusion (if you notice when a task becomes non responsive they tend to click everything and make it even worse) this is just my theory and it is worded very poorly but hopefully you understand what im saying --------------- i guess what i mean is that windows 7/vista is like the new Lexus with all these features that do everything for you: park your car for you, day time running head lights, automatic braking during a crash, and has the thing that beeps if you dont put your seatbelt on. where XP is the old car that the driver is in FULL control of the car and the car depends on the drivers skill level. ------------- i prefer XP for that reason: i want to be in control of my computer, i simply wish that W7/vista offered more options to give me that control AND put them in clear view for me. -------------- i still want a MS official answer --------------- i am also very curious to why W7 uses 7-8% CPU at idle and it is not reported under the lists of processes... very suspicious, and no its not a virus ------------------ i will end by saying this: W7>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>vista -------------- Hi Luke,Ok here i go,first of all cookies can be very harmful i dont know if you ever heard about malicious cookies? of course normal cookies such as login ones to keep sessions and users info aint too bad( besides the fac t i dont want any info to be saved in my pc such as Passwords etc, keylogger and other ways could get all the info saved), im sure you also never heard about spoof cookies? that means access granted just google it and you will see how those can help hackers(if you use msn lots of malicious cookies are created for that everyday and even your friend and infect you with those),and just one thing i would like to share with you.... everything you leave automated goes in the same way for hackers,i dont know if you know but even when you put a cd or dvd in your drive and pops up that windows automatically is a possible vulnarability ,one thing you need to know is that hackers are dirty onesw and they look for "Legal" things thus things you run normally in your system which they not recognized a viruses to grant access or even damage your pc ....you talked about linux ok lets talk about linux,you think windows is a pain in the neck can you imagine everythime you want to install something you have tounpack and the compile like linux?dpackage bla bla\ configuremakemake install those are small ones and simple now for some tasks you have to type almost a paragraph to perform those....thats why hackers hardly ever develop a virus for that(again remember its not automated thats why) you have to perform all those tasks then it starts installing things so in practice how can a virus start installing automatically if it has to go through all those steps,it has to instruct many command lines andinstall till then your system blocked....its not exactly how im explaning but its something like that...so when you said : i removed permissions and then i could access it,and thats the point !!!if you want to copy something there or delete you got to take ownership ,so in practice hackers have to take ownership to do something for that,they got to do several things till grant access.....againt its not exactly how i explained but i just summerized to be faster....Hope this clear things outKind regards,RR

no ive never heard of spoof cookies, why would locking up the cookies folder to the user protect you from them? i have autorun completely disabled. i agree automatic stuff is bad, why are you telling me this when i agree? cd's and dvd's are low threat though if there from a software vender, USB drives are the thing to be worried about and so you agree with me that steve ballmer was being stupid when he said windows vista is the most secure operating system? btw- i have ubuntu linux (triple boot) and its not that hard to install a program. what do you mean by: so when you said: i removed permissions and then i could access it,and that the point !!! whats wrong with removing the permissions? if a hacker wants something in there, he'd have the browser do it for him... much easier i also want to say (to microsoft) that ive never had more trouble posting a message on a forum than this one, it doesnt work on opera 10...which gets 100 on acid3, firefox didnt work, internet explorer finally worked (of course). not to mention many many other problems with the site... unable to copy text from other's posts in opera why arnt there people representing MS on this site?or are there?

"it doesnt work on opera 10...which gets 100 on acid3"....LOL"i removed permissions and then i could access it,and that the point !!"- i typed fast and didnt realize it is not quite complete... when i said that i was trying to mention the time you said you removed the permissions and then you could access the folder,and then i said: and Thats the point,when you had to remove permissions to access that....."why would locking up the cookies folder to the user protect you from them?" -yeah i agree with you that its not something that would reaally protect you BUT i believe its got some good impact such as redirecting folders or changing that folder behaviour ..dunno but it just sounds like one more layer to keep some undesired actions away..."btw- i have ubuntu linux (triple boot) and its not that hard to install a program"-i didnt say its a hard thing to do but it bothers me that everytime i want to install or perform any actions has to type command lines....i d much rather have an icon based OS...."so you agree with me that steve ballmer was being stupid when he said windows vista is the most secure operating system? " i belive when he said that he was prolly comparing with other MS OS..Kind regards,RR

i was hoping to not get started in on browsers but here it goes....internet explorer sucks. it gets like 20 on acid3. the problem with opera is that nobody uses it... everybody is using internet explorer because they dont know any better. unfortunatly sincelike 70%of people use IE people have to program them to look right in IE, which means they have to program them the incorrect way, which means that in compatible browsers like opera 10 (100/100) firefox 3 (84/100) and google crome (100/100) the website wont show up correctly. which is why internet explorer sucks.whats wrong with removing the permission? i only removed one: the one the denied "everyone" the ability to VIEW/MODIFY folder contentssince cookies arnt executable locking up the folderdoes not give protection from users (in other words users can do whatever they want to cookies w/o causing harm)i agree, i prefer windows to linux but the fact remains that linux is more secureeven if he was... vista is most certainly not the most secure OS. as i said i know a computer security specialists who would also strongly disagreei'd expect that microsoft would be watching this forum, so why dont they explain why they locked it?

Hi man,well im not so sure about IE8,it works like a charm for me,internet speed involves many things which i dont find convinient to explain em all here,but i can 100% assure you that my IE8 is much more secure and faster than any other,considering hackers aim my computer every single minute im online(long story cant tell you why and explain everything now),and when you are a victim of Ddos attacks usually it congestion ur network and you can bearly open a page completely when it doenst fail,BUUUT i follow microsoft advisories and other experts so i implemented serveral things which u cant finish in a single day that,in other wordsmy internet is fast and reliable, even though im a target i remember in old times when i knew jack skit about security and my pc was not mine but zombies machine i used to call the assitance(my internet provider) to get it fixed and it never would,so time has changed thanks God!!now you were talking about vista ,i dont want to talk much about that cause vista for is past for me(not an ofense and not being rude wit yo),the problem in vista is that it was released before the time should be released but thats ok the most important thing in vista was change the whole concept about OS and MS fixed and created a new one more stable than never....cookies can harm your system dude ,just google it and read about .....when you say they are not executables it dont matter i know they txt but it can be hooked tho....removing everyone permissions does not affect only you but possible visitors too,you said theres no problem removing that specific folder,for me it matters i mean in my case ....Regards,RR

have you even tried opera? or firefox?how can you assure me that IE8 is more secure than all the other browsers? unless you really know your ____ there is no way for you to determine that. as for speed, yes IE8 has faster warm/cold boots on 64 bit systems because it has a 64 bit version while the other do not. as for stuff like switching tabs.... on my old 2.4GHz celeron, 512 MB ram, win xp system internet explorer 8 takes a few seconds to simply switchtabs while opera its instant. when i say vista imean vista/windows7yeah cookies can harm my system but locking up the folder wont protect me, if a hacker wants a cookie on my computer he will have the browser do it. and since they're not .exe the user cant cause themselves harm by opening them/accessing the folderremoving everyone permissions does not affect only you but possible visitors too,you said theres no problem removing that specific folder,for me it matters i mean in my case ....-so what hackers dont put cookies on your computer by accessing the folder, as for other users on your computer, you can make permissions banning them

Hi dear Luke ,the answer is Yes i have tried them not a month ago but since opera has been release years ago and firefox long time ago as well and have tried a few months ago just for testing purposes,but what i figured in old times is that no browser makes miracle if the owner doesnt know where the problem comes from or whats causing the issue, when i assured that ie8 could be more secure than any other i meant when you know how to set up security settings which they not hard thing to do, by confguring group policy object and many other things it can be much secure,im not an expert but not sure if theres much to do in terms of setting up a security policy for other browsers besides theyr built in confgurations!?Anyone can correct me if im wrong but im almost 100% sure of what im saying....cookies i know anyone can inject a cookie in my windows cookies folder but considering all the security settings ive made i believe they wouldnt go too further nor couldnt harm my system that much or even nuttin,and talking about permissions why would i want to remove permissions in my cookies folder? whats the advantage of it? knowing that i can clear all the cookies from my browser or control panel? btw i set to clean everything as soon as i close my browser and i frequently clear temp folders and other temp useless stuff so why would i want to access cookies folder?theres no point for that IMO..Regards,RR

Oh just a reminder forgot to answer 100% ,you talked about IE8 performance in general things like image rendering ,creating new tabs right?well i aint got not problems with that IE8 works pretty fast for me ,when creating new tabs which takes bout a sec,loading images just fine no problems almost always instantly opens and when the image is too heavy it goes fast anyways.....hope ths answers what you asked me..Kind regards,RR

in opera it takes 0 secs to change between tabs/open a new tabon my fast desktop and very little time on my crappy desktop. all im saying is opera feels much more responsive than internet exploreras for security i trust opera more than microsoft because microsoft cant be trusted, sure call meparinoid but i have my reasons and i certainly wouldnt mention them on this site. theres the same security settings in opera as there is IE.my view of computer security is to simply not keep anything you value (info about you) on your computer unless you encrypt it, back up important files and keep your install disk in the desk. if you get a virus and cant get rid of it: reinstall. you know really this "access is denied" ____ is really my only major beef with windows 7, ok theres also the reduced fps in w7 compared to xp but other than that desktop performance seems to be as fast as windows xp and sometimes faster with things like opening programs from a cold start, i did notice that warm start was less though (which is strange)i should say though thatmy warm start tests were just by feel since i cant really time it. boot up time seems (havent tested this yet) to be about the same (to login screen) and log in time was noticably better than xp, although i have different anti virus programs installed (avira on w7, avg free on xp) which could be the reasonthe new taskbar system is a love hate thing but overall works wellit would be interestingto see how w7 would perform on an old single core with half a gig of ram, that would be a true comparison because performance differences would be more noticable. i'd turn down all W7's effects and turn xp's up to make it fair since w7 would be on a system below its minimun requirements

i also find it suspicious and annoying that w7 does not display all running processes under task manager. tm will report 10% cpu usage alot of the time but no process in tm process list shows any cpu usage. if something is using cpu i want to know what it is. same for memory usage.

Hi Luke904,i must testify this to you,IE8 is pretty fast for me,you said opera takes 0 secs to open new tabs i dont want to offend ya but almost everything you do takes at least 1 sec!!!i was wondering if opera has Inprivate navigation tho havent tested yet lately,you said you trust more in opera than in microsoft can you be more specific and tell me why you trust more in opera tahn Ie8?anyways i ll stick with ie8 am very happy with that,havent had big headaches with it!Kind regards,RR

Yeah, CuriousCat, I've seen it before. You all IE users are happy with it. But when yet another virus infects your windoze box, you come weeping "ok i'll try that other browser"

Hi losedows,Thats why i use antivirus,to keep me away from viruses but what is the mechanism of defense in opera? and if you going to get a virus not even opera will save you!!My opinion..kind regards,RR

antivirus doesnt really protect you from people who know what there doing and arnt just some dumbass 15 year old making virus's. antivirus can only protect you from known virus's, a hacker who wants to get into your computer will. he will make his own virus.opera is more secure, it tells me EXACTLY what its doing ALL the time, i know if its uploading, downloading and where its doing it, it has a great error console which pops up about 5 times every time i go to this site telling me they screwed up with java (probably purposesly to make sure it works perfectly on IE). lol losedows, i like your namein private browsing is the stupidest idea ever, all it does is not allow the computer to keep cookies or temp files on YOUR computer. all the servers you visit will have records of your ip visiting, no opera does not have that feature, i can just delete the stuff it creates myself or turn it off if i really need to.i will say that IE8 does use low amounts of ram, i have opera set to keep everying in memory (up to 200 megs) so its faster. i dont believe you can control how IE uses memory or HD cache can you?and yes to open a new tab in opera its instant, when i click- its there. IE8 takes at least 1/3 of a second (which is really annoying to me) (my system: 7750 2.7g dual, 4 gigs 1066, 320 gig 7200rpm 16 meg, x64)opera has a turbo mode: speeds up browsing considerably (low res pics) or i can simply turn pics off, or use only images in the cachenot to mention that IE manages a pathetic 20/100 on acid 3.... opera 10=100........ opera 9.64=84....... firefox 3.5: 93sunspider: 3356ms -IE8, 2138ms -opera 10 oh yeah lol internet explorer 7: 27,760ms=FAILceltic kane javascript: 343ms -IE8 154ms -opera10 IE7:550ms=FAILsource Maximum PC june 09 pg 44still think internet explorer 8 is fast?opera simply gives me control, it has zillions of options so that it works just how you want it to. but im sure you have your reasons to like IE8

Hi Luke,Well when i said 1 sec i meant itinstantly opensnew tabs thats the way i interpret,i could say 0,25 secs...about viruses, i think its really hard to a virus infect my PC for many reasons, antivirus always updated(for unknown threats antiviruses has a mechanism called Anti-rootkit or heuristic method which i dont remember ) anyways the thing is i changed all the behavior of windows installer,windows registry tools cant run silently i set to prevent from gpo, and millions and millions of GPO settingts which wont allow install things that i dont want to and one of them is files with extention.exe wont elevate if not digitally signed, i use applocker with tons of rules like dll rules,executables,scripts etc...dont know if that influences but i think it helps and add more 1 zillion of registry tweaks&hacks that enforces the secuirty of my pc....about internet speed i am very satisfied with IE8 and all those statistics wont apply for me....but as you said im sure you have your reasons for not liking IE8!Kind regards,RR

0<0.25 secs.....ok maybe its like 0.1 secs but close enough to 0i can also pause downloads in opera, close opera, open opera the next day and start the download again... cant do that in IE8.you probably have very fast internet. i used to surf on a 2.4 single half gig xp 32 with DIAL UP, btw it was a 2.4 celeron (the celerons then were very slow) with only 128k L2, i have that much L1 in this computer lol. it was very clear what browser was the best then, (in terms of speed) opera>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>IE>firefox for some reason ffox ran really bad on that computer... dont know why ok, this is kinda off topic but it just happened so... i hate how w7/vista asks to reinstall programs with the "correct" settings. it always asks... if i cancel a intallistation it tells me that "this program may not have intalled correctly," kinda pathetic how it cant detect when i cancel an install. it seems to always ask me after intalling something, does the same thing in vista. do you know how to turn this off in gpedit or regedit?all antivirus programs use heuristics....what do you mean by GPO settings? group policy ____? or something else?btw- you dont need to be defensive, im sure your computer is plenty secure

Hi luke,yeah i know its kinda off topic but as you said it just happened hehe,but i know those confortabilities of pausing thedownload and restart back later they r cool and useful but for me in some aspect they dont sound like the more secure kind of thing just like caching stuff for better performance etc,and thats pretty much like a download manager buil-in in opera browser!!my internet speed is ok and good enuff for what i do on internet but i can assure you that its not the best ones like i see ppl posting in this forum which looks like this 187329633826 GBs/sec hehe :Dabout this statement : "i hate how w7/vista asks to reinstall programs with the "correct" settings. it always asks... if i cancel a intallistation it tells me that "this program may not have intalled correctly," kinda pathetic how it cant detect when i cancel an install"thats the compatibility mode behaviour when you installing something not win7 compatible so what it does is when you click on reinstall the program with the recommended settings windows sets up in compatibility mode(vista sp1 compatible for example), if you want to avoid this ,the only way i know is before you click to install something ,just right click on it first>>properties>>compatibility>>>check the box and choose Vista Sp1or anyone you like it in the drop down menuand the check the box which says "Run as administrator" and thats it!! then click to install and it will do so in a Correct way and wont ask you those things again!About GPO yes i meant group policy object and yes my pc is well secured but it could be even much more if i knew things better and had easier/more access to some informations which they are not provided if i dont pay ate least $500 per month(just playingwithvalues)=/Latelyinternet here its not so good(my option) cause using crappyfree proxies it slows down a bit but im still trying to find a good one with good latencyandother good status stuff!Ps: i know it looks a bit confusing but sometimes i get lost in what im writting as i mentioned tons of times English not my first language and lost/forgot(fluency etc)a little of what i knew in old times due to the lack of practice! so sorry for the redundancies please relevate those...Kind regards,RR

yes it is confusing but its understandable, english is confusing even for people with it as a 1st language. just use lots of commas to seperate your thoughts, thats what i do. what is your 1st language by the way?if you really want to get secure use tor (just google it) its a browser that uses thousands of proxys, its kinda slow thoughso what changes have you made to make your computer more secure? is this done in the group policy editor?here is another thing that bothers me about windows 7: i cant set process's affinity ("access is denied"), if you dont know what affinnity is:which cores a process is allowed to use. soif im doing a virus scan i can only allow it to run on one core so my computer stays responsive. do you know how to fix this?thats what i thought the reinstall thing was but its really annoying and i havent ever had a program that did not install correctly so if anyone knows of a way to turn it off let me know.theres got to be something you dont likeabout windows 7.... anything?

Hi buddy,yeah i know it looks like i never went to school lol,commas get eaten sometimes hehe...first language is portuguese here (BR)^^, about the browser i would say proxies S*Ck sometimes they r slow ,well at least the free ones and answering the question about Group policy i'd say yes i configured every policy as possible but i also sneaked through hundreds of thousands sites with recommendations just like microsofts which they provide zillions of registry changes so basically you change your pc bahavior ,mostly are protection against Ddos attacks those are implementations to prevent such attacks,things like Syn flood etc and it even makes your internet speed boost up!!!but i also found hundreds of precious implementations to protect your pc from any unwanted changes and make it like Unscanable inspeak of vulnerability scannners!!!i know that sounded confusing but im sortta lazy to think this morning hehe unfortunately i dont know how to turn off compatibility mode but maybe one of the Moderators know how to perform that...."theres got to be something you dont likeabout windows 7.... anything?"The answer is Hmmm.....Hmmm..well still didnt find anything that really bothers me cause im really used to go through manyoptions to get done some tasks ,maybe thats why i dont care much about changing some settings, comparing with zillions of modifications i made to make it even more secure those little things is nuttin for me but i also understand that standard users dont want to go through some diferent options to install something or get some apps to work properly,some ppl just want to click to install and thats it...hope the text was clear enuff to get my tots understoodlolPs: if you want those resources about registry implementation i can post the links for ya ...Kind regards,RR