Win7 Padlock thingy....IT Experts please read....
 

I've just changed from XP to Win7 and a number of files, which I think are mainly new files I have created since the conversion, have a little padlock showing on the icon.

These files are then only readable from the application which was used to create them.
If I try to find them using Explorer or another application, that should be able to read them, they are not there i.e you cannot even see them let alone load them (it's as if they are not even saved on the disk).

Doing a bit of a google tonight I have messed with the security settings and somewhere along the line typed in 'Authenticated User' to create a new usergroup, and then set to 'Full Control'.

This seems to of fixed things i.e if I load the files created, then save them with a slightly different file name I can now see them in explorer and the other apps that use them.

Have I done the right thing as it seems to of worked, but it did take some fumbling around and a few expletives were said about MicroSoft along the way.....

Cheers

Was it an in-place upgrade from XP to 7, or a fresh install?

If an upgrade, i've seen it do funny things with permissions on documents/files that are part of the old XP user's profile - 7 is a bit more secure and can assume that the new user setup in that OS is a different person to the old XP user - therefore denies access to their old files.

If you are the only person using your PC, and aren't overly worried about file security, then what you have done is fine. 'Authenticated Users' is just a built-in Windows security group for any users who have successfully logged into the system. If you have multiple logon accounts to your PC that are password protected (different family members etc) then you will have granted all of these other accounts access to the files too.

Hii there


Use this Take Ownership,its for Windows Vista,but working perfectly on the W7

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...menu-in-vista/

Just download Take Ownership.zip and install REG file(Registry file) with Double-click and you will have under right click take ownership,which will help

Jura

Hi Steve,

Its a brand new laptop which I have installed my backed-up files from the older WinXp machine.

Everything seems OK with the files copied over, it's just files I have created since, that had the padlock thing.

i.e My ECU map which I have modified a few times in the last week along with the folder that I saved your ECU ROM image too yesterday.

Why, when I am the only user/administrator does it apply these locks ? Surley as Admin it should let me do and see everything.

There are no other accounts on the laptop yet, but if I add a new one will they see all these files.

The files in question are located under c:\Program Files\ and then within the directory tree of their representative application.

As daft as it sounds, a user account which is an Administrator can't get to all files in Vista or 7 systems. Part of this is Microsoft 'protecting' users from making mistakes and deleting system/profile files etc.

In your case, i think its because the new laptop doesn't have a clue about the old files - they'll have their own permissions/ownership settings on them from the old XP system. Windows can be quirky at best with these kind of things, e.g - move a file from one place to another, it retains its permissions. Copy a file from one place to another, and the copy takes the permissions from the destination folder.

To answer your question - yes, if you add another account, they will be able to access these files because you added full control to 'Authenticated Users'. To fix this, go back to the folders, take ownership of them and then set your own account to Full Control. Then delete the Authenticated Users permissions.

Can I do a global 'take ownership' i.e of the c:\ under my profile ?
Do I need to create a new profile or will the exisitng admin one work ?

I tried to get it working using the standard Admin account and the Scott-pc\admin account but this didn't seem to work. But then again maybe it did as it wasn't until I made another copy of the locked files that I realised it wasn't applying the little padlock anymore.

I wouldn't recommend trying to take ownership at a global (c:\) level! Could end up stuffing things over, as some system files might be owned by other system accounts (there is a built-in account called PC_name\SYSTEM).

Without seeing what the folders are, i'd only change what you've already done so. Happy to take a look at it when we next meet up if you can wait for a bit :)