I have recently started using windows 7 and am having some trouble getting used to the difference in permissions between this version and xp. The issue that I am having most difficulty with is.... I am in the local administrators group on my laptop. I have installed an application to C:\Progam Files\My Company\My Application While testing the app I needed to make some changes to the config file in this directoty. I opened the config file and made the necessary changes and tried to save but got an Access Denied message. Thinking that the file must have been in use I tried renaming the file. This was ok. I am just unable to modify the file. I went into the directory permissions and took ownership of the directory. After doing this I tried the to modify the file once more - still got the Access Denied. I was able to make the change that I needed by copying the config file to desktop, editing this copy and then copying back to my program directory but this is hardly a satisfactory solution long term. What do I need to do in order to make administrative changes, apart fro being in Administrators group? Another issue that I noticed while attempting the above was that Windows Explorer does not always show updates to directories immediately, ie if I change a file name, or paste a file into a directory, the content of the directory window does not reflect this change until I press F5. What is going on here? Thanks in advanceThanks Terry Holland

See my answer in How to delete the padlock icons. "To fix this issue, Enable the administrator account, login and change the permissions e.g. Everyone, Authenticated Users - Full Control. All of the padlocks disappeared and allowed changes in ownership and permissions." Being in the Admin group does not seem to work properly. You must enable the Administrator account and login as the Administrator to get rid of the "access denied" messages. I agree XP was a LOT easier with less buttons to click for this one..