Can't write to Shared Documents folder

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Guest

Windows XP Home SP1 and all updates
As part of a general tightening of security on going to broadband I took a Network share off of my Shared Documents folder and put it on a new sub-folder within Shared Documents. I then found that I had no write access to the Shared Documents folder contents as a local user. This applied to a user with Administrator privs and to the Administrator running in safe mode. The only way I can get read and write access to Shared Docs locally is by putting back the Network share plus write access for remote users
I suspect the I have been running in the Network Shared mode since the machine was new and I connected it to an older W98 machine. I hadn't taken notice as I make very little use of Shared Docs. Surely Network access doesn't need to be set for local read/write access to Shared Docs. Nothing found on MS Knowledge Base or searches here quite fits this
Any ideas folks ?
 
This sounds like a file ownership issue related to NTFS. Note, file
ownership and permissions supersede administrator rights. How you resolve
it depends upon which version of XP you are running.



XP-Home



Unfortunately, XP Home using NTFS is essentially hard wired for "Simple File
Sharing" at system level.

However, you can set XP Home permissions in Safe Mode. Reboot, and start
hitting F8, a menu should eventually appear and one of the
options is Safe Mode. Select it. Note, it will ask for the administrator's
password. This is not your administrator account, rather it is the
machine's administrator account for which users are asked to create a
password during setup.

If you created no such password, when requested, leave blank and press
enter.

Open Explorer, go to Tools and Folder Options, on the view tab, scroll to
the bottom of the list, if it shows "Enable Simple File Sharing" deselect it
and click apply and ok. If it shows nothing or won't let you make a change,
move on to the next step.

Navigate to the files, right click, select properties, go to the Security
tab, click advanced, go to the Owner tab and select the user that was logged
on when you were refused permission to access the files. Click apply and
ok. Close the properties box, reopen it, click add and type in the name of
the user you just enabled. If you wish to set ownership for everything in
the folder, at the bottom of the Owner tab is the following selection:
"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects," select it as well.

Once complete, you should be able to do what you wish with these files when
you log back on as that user.



XP-Pro



If you have XP Pro, temporarily change the limited account to
administrative. First, go to Windows Explorer, go to Tools, select Folder
Options, go to the View tab and be sure "Use Simple File Sharing" is not
selected. If it is, deselect it and click apply and ok.



If you wish everything in a specific folder to be accessible to a user,
right click the folder, select properties, go to the Security tab, click
Advanced, go to the Owner tab,
select the user you wish to have access, at the bottom of the box, you
should see a check box for "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects,"
place a check in the box and click apply and ok.

The user should now be able to perform necessary functions on files in the
folder even as a limited account. If not, make it an admin account again,
right click the folder, select Properties, go to the Security tab and be
sure the user is listed in the user list. If not, click add and type the
user name in the appropriate box, be sure the user has all the necessary
permissions checked in the permission list below the user list, click apply
and ok.

That should do it and allow whatever access you desire for that folder even
in a limited account.
 
Michael

thanks for that, spot on diagnosis but actions not quite as advertised. My username was not present to
be selected when logged on in safe mode (XP Home version) as the system's admin but was available when
logged on as myself (user with admin privs). I gave myself 'full control' and can now write/delete etc
in Shared Documents. I'll have another look somewhen in case I've fouled up some other aspect. My local
access to Shared Documents is now OK and my LAN folder sharing is now a lot safer

The only users shown on the logon page in safe mode are the System's admininstrator and my own username
which is odd as there is another user with admin privileges. My system admin has an unremakable
username whereas the other priviledged user is called Sysadmin - sheer paranoia on my part

Further searches on MS KB against 'ownership' found KB 308421 on taking ownership of folders -
interesting if somewhat confusing

Regards and thanks again
Tom Alle
 
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