Changing folder rights and permissions in Vista

Recently I was confronted with a very peculiar problem. What actually happened was, I had set the permission of a certain folder to "Administrator" which was in D: drive. Later when I formatted my OS, I found that I practically did not own that folder, because it did not recognize the new "Administrator". So I was not able to work with any of the file within the folder. None of the video files opened, text files could not be modified, files could not be deleted or renamed, or in other words that folder had become useless.

Hence I tried a few things to change the permission of the folder as a whole, rather than an individual file, which is much easier, but really tedious to do. So I describe the process which was of particular help.

Before doing all this, its better that you disable UAC. Though the process given below can be done with UAC enabled. But it is recommended to turn UAC off so that you don't have to bear the pain of typing in the administrator password again and again.

Follow the following steps:

• Right click on the folder you want to change the permission of.
• Click on properties.
• Click on Security tab.
• Click on the "Advanced" button at the bottom right corner. "Advanced security Settings" opens up.
• Click on the "Owner" tab.
• Enter the name of the user, or even better will be "Administrator".
• In case you cannot write in the space provided below "Current owner", Click on "Edit..." button.
• Click on "Other users or groups...".
• Now enter the user name, or "Administrator" in the space provided.
• Click "OK".
• Check the box which says, "Replace owner on sub-containers and objects".
• Click "Apply".
• Click "OK".
• Click "OK" again in the present window.
• You may be prompted with the message to continue, Click continue.

Even after doing all this, if you don't have control over your sub folders, it means that the rights of the sub folders are being inherited. So you need to change the "Auditing" for the particular folder.

To do so follow the following steps:

• Right click on the folder.
• Click on properties.
• Click on Security tab.
• Click on the "Advanced" button at the bottom right corner. "Advanced security Settings" opens up.
• Click on the "Auditing" tab.
• Click on "Continue".
• Click on "Edit...". Another window opens up.
• Click on "Add..." and enter the user name or "Administrator".
• Click "OK".
• Now, check the box saying, "Replace all existing inheritable auditing entries on all descendants with inheritable auditing entries from the object".
• Click "Apply"->Click "OK".
• Click "OK" again, and select continue if any pop up for permission comes in.
  

You have successfully changed the rights of the folder as well as the sub folders. In case you want to remove the garbage entries from the "Group or user names", simply open the "Security tab" and select them and click "Edit...", followed by "Remove".
That is it.

Enjoy!

Advanced sharing in Windows Vista

In our college I face a lot of problem accessing the folders shared by someone using vista . The problem is that to access the shared file I am asked a user name and password. And I'm tired of telling each and everyone the process to remove it. This can be done in the following way.

To remove this and some other recommended settings:

• Right click on the network icon and select "Network and Sharing Center".
• Click on the down arrow beside the "Password protected sharing".
• Check "Turn off password protected sharing". Click "Apply".
• Turn off "Public folder sharing", "Printer sharing" and "Media sharing"(sharing by Windows Media Player), if they are not required, in the same way as the above step.

If while accessing the shared folder it still asks for a password, or the folders simply don't open, that means your "Guest" login is not enabled while sharing. In order to correct it (i.e. enable guest login):

• Right click on the folder U want to share.
• Choose properties & click on the sharing portion.
• Click on the "Change sharing permissions" button.
• You will get a list of user name on your OS or the name by which you are logged on. Above it there is a space for entering a new user.
• Click on the arrow pointing down. Among a list of users click on the "Guest" or "Everyone" option and press the “Add” button.
• If you do not want the others to change the content of your folder keep the rights of the guest as “Reader”, else you can change it according to your need.

In case the "Share..." button in the "Sharing properties" is not highlighted or non-clickable:

• Click on the “Advanced Sharing” button.
• Now, check the box for “Share this folder”.
• Click on the "Permissions" button to set the permission of the sharing.
• In case "Everyone" is not in the list of "Group or user names", click on "Add..." and add "Everyone" in the dialog box.
• Click "OK".
• In the "Permissions for Everyone" header check the box "Read" and not the others. This will provide only read facility to others, rather than give modify capabilities as well.
• Select "Apply", then “Ok”.
  

Enjoy!