I am pulling my hair out with this OS. I just got a new Dell laptop with
Vista Home Premium.
Since Dell doesn't provide drivers for win xp for it I am stuck with
this OS.
I am trying to organize it and set things up like I want but there are
lots of folders in Windows Explorer that keep denying me access, even
though I am the administrator.
How the hell do I gain access to all the folders on my computer?
This situation is completely unacceptable.
I have already tried all the usual things that one could do in XP to
allow access to system or hidden folders and files, but these denied
folders aren't even important in many cases.
Thanks a lot for any advice.

take ownership of the folders. You could take ownership of the entire
drive and all folders and subfolders. Try disabling UAC and see if this
releases them. In Vista, disabled folders are usually protected with
UAC. You really don't need access to them.


--
SCSIraidGURU

Michael A. McKenney
'www.SCSIraidGURU.com' (http://www.SCSIraidGURU.com)

SCSIraidGURU wrote:
take ownership of the folders. You could take ownership of the entire
drive and all folders and subfolders. Try disabling UAC and see if this
releases them. In Vista, disabled folders are usually protected with
UAC. You really don't need access to them.


Thank you, but how does one take ownership of a drive or folder?
This is my first experience with Vista.

"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
SCSIraidGURU wrote:
take ownership of the folders. You could take ownership of the entire
drive and all folders and subfolders. Try disabling UAC and see if this
releases them. In Vista, disabled folders are usually protected with
UAC. You really don't need access to them.


Thank you, but how does one take ownership of a drive or folder?
This is my first experience with Vista.

If you search Google there is plenty of info on how to take ownership...
however before you do so...
some of the folders are not even meant to be accessed:

see this

http://www.realtime-vista.com/genera...uments_and.htm


Personally I think it very confusing!!!!

Hi,
There are some folders in Vista that are not real folders, such as
"Documents and Settings". These are called junctions and are used to allow
legacy programs to interface with Vista's folder/file system. They can not be
accessed because they are not folders.
--
Paul


"Luis Ortega" wrote:

I am pulling my hair out with this OS. I just got a new Dell laptop with
Vista Home Premium.
Since Dell doesn't provide drivers for win xp for it I am stuck with
this OS.
I am trying to organize it and set things up like I want but there are
lots of folders in Windows Explorer that keep denying me access, even
though I am the administrator.
How the hell do I gain access to all the folders on my computer?
This situation is completely unacceptable.
I have already tried all the usual things that one could do in XP to
allow access to system or hidden folders and files, but these denied
folders aren't even important in many cases.
Thanks a lot for any advice.

philo wrote:
"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
SCSIraidGURU wrote:
take ownership of the folders. You could take ownership of the entire
drive and all folders and subfolders. Try disabling UAC and see if this
releases them. In Vista, disabled folders are usually protected with
UAC. You really don't need access to them.


Thank you, but how does one take ownership of a drive or folder?
This is my first experience with Vista.

If you search Google there is plenty of info on how to take ownership...
however before you do so...
some of the folders are not even meant to be accessed:

see this

http://www.realtime-vista.com/genera...uments_and.htm


Personally I think it very confusing!!!!


Thanks. It certainly is confusing.
There are multiple instance of folders all over windows explorer.
I have been trying to allow access and have succeeded on some but I am
just flying blind and have no idea if I am screwing everything up.
Some folders continue to be unaccessible and some are now accessible,
but I don't know in what order to be doing this or what the parent stuff
is all about.
I suspect that any moment now I will render the whole computer useless
and will be forced to reformat and reinstall the OS from scratch.
That may be just as well, since I need to learn how to use this thing
and I don't have a clue. Usually installing an OS is the first step in
learning how it works.
I am very familiar with xp and with building computers but this vista is
just very weird.
I wish that I could install xp on it but apparently there aren't any xp
drivers for this laptop's devices. It's a new Dell Studio 1535. The
hardware itself is nice but the OS is crap.

Step by step instruction on how to take ownership of a folder



Run CMD (as administrator) and type: takeown [path] /f filename or folder

OR

- Right-click the file/folder you want to own, click properties

- Click Security Tab

- Click Advanced

- Click the Owner Tab

- Click Edit

- Select the Administrators group from the list

- Click OK

- Click OK

- Click OK

You have now taken 'Ownership' of the file and you can close the property

Windows



Now again



1) Right-click on the file

2) Select Properties

3) Go to the Security tab again, click the Advanced button

4) Now Press Edit, then double-click 'Administrators' in the list and tick

the 'allow' box for 'Full control'



You have now taken 'Full control' of file


--
Leo

Forget world peace. Visualize using your turn signal.





"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
SCSIraidGURU wrote:
take ownership of the folders. You could take ownership of the entire
drive and all folders and subfolders. Try disabling UAC and see if this
releases them. In Vista, disabled folders are usually protected with
UAC. You really don't need access to them.


Thank you, but how does one take ownership of a drive or folder?
This is my first experience with Vista.

Maybe this wwill help.

Junctions in Vista

Junctions (folders w/shortcut arrows) aren't actually folders but are pretty
much shortcuts, to get old legacy stuff from where it was in XP to the new
folders in Vista. In Vista all that stuff is in users drive:\Users\your name.
Use a command prompt to see which folders are Junctions. Type dir /al to show
just Junctions. Or a dir /a will work.


--
Leo

Forget world peace. Visualize using your turn signal.





"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
philo wrote:
"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
SCSIraidGURU wrote:
take ownership of the folders. You could take ownership of the entire
drive and all folders and subfolders. Try disabling UAC and see if this
releases them. In Vista, disabled folders are usually protected with
UAC. You really don't need access to them.


Thank you, but how does one take ownership of a drive or folder?
This is my first experience with Vista.

If you search Google there is plenty of info on how to take ownership...
however before you do so...
some of the folders are not even meant to be accessed:

see this

http://www.realtime-vista.com/genera...uments_and.htm


Personally I think it very confusing!!!!


Thanks. It certainly is confusing.
There are multiple instance of folders all over windows explorer.
I have been trying to allow access and have succeeded on some but I am just
flying blind and have no idea if I am screwing everything up.
Some folders continue to be unaccessible and some are now accessible, but I
don't know in what order to be doing this or what the parent stuff is all
about.
I suspect that any moment now I will render the whole computer useless and
will be forced to reformat and reinstall the OS from scratch.
That may be just as well, since I need to learn how to use this thing and I
don't have a clue. Usually installing an OS is the first step in learning how
it works.
I am very familiar with xp and with building computers but this vista is just
very weird.
I wish that I could install xp on it but apparently there aren't any xp
drivers for this laptop's devices. It's a new Dell Studio 1535. The hardware
itself is nice but the OS is crap.

Leo wrote:

Step by step instruction on how to take ownership of a folder



Run CMD (as administrator) and type: takeown [path] /f filename or
folder

OR

- Right-click the file/folder you want to own, click properties

- Click Security Tab

- Click Advanced

- Click the Owner Tab

- Click Edit

- Select the Administrators group from the list

- Click OK

- Click OK

- Click OK

You have now taken 'Ownership' of the file and you can close the property

Windows



Now again



1) Right-click on the file

2) Select Properties

3) Go to the Security tab again, click the Advanced button

4) Now Press Edit, then double-click 'Administrators' in the list and tick

the 'allow' box for 'Full control'



You have now taken 'Full control' of file



Thanks, I will give this a try and see how it goes.

Luis Ortega;856223 Wrote:
Leo wrote:

Step by step instruction on how to take ownership of a folder

Run CMD (as administrator) and type: takeown [path] /f filename or
folder
OR
- Right-click the file/folder you want to own, click properties
- Click Security Tab
- Click Advanced
- Click the Owner Tab
- Click Edit
- Select the Administrators group from the list
- Click OK
- Click OK
- Click OK
You have now taken 'Ownership' of the file and you can close the
property
Windows
Now again

1) Right-click on the file

2) Select Properties

3) Go to the Security tab again, click the Advanced button

4) Now Press Edit, then double-click 'Administrators' in the list and
tick

the 'allow' box for 'Full control'

You have now taken 'Full control' of file

Thanks, I will give this a try and see how it goes.

Hi Luis,

You could just add it to your right click context menu with this .reg
file

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/11...ownership.html

Hope it helps

SIW2


--
SIW2