Prevent an Application from creating a folder in My Documents

  • Thread starter Thread starter George Valkov
  • Start date Start date
G

George Valkov

There seem to be a lot of Smart applications these days that want to
organise my documents in the way they want to and not the way I want to.

In other words I have a lot of folders under My Documents, which I never
intend to use. So I delete these folders, but the next time I start an
application, it's folder is recreated. Currently I have modified the
permissions on My Documents, to deny:Create Folder. This works, but from
time to time some application will fail to reinstall and I have to temporary
unprotect the folder.

Another place is the SendTo folder and I really hate when Skype goes in
there.

And for C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QTTask.exe
and some other nice applications, I have a software restriction policy that
says "Disallowed" ;-) until I completely remove them.


My questions is:
Does anybody know a good and clean alternative or advice?
~ restrict an application from creating a specific folder
~ prevent anything from installing to specific locations, perhaps redirect
the installation to a temporary folder (in order to succeed installation),
where my cleanup script will take a good care of it.
Thank You for any!


George Valkov
 
i don't know if such a tool exists, but if you restrict a app from creating
a folder you might make it stop running. when app's create folders they
create them in order to function, create temp files etc. you cant just
restrict the way an app must work. would you like someone to restrict you
from breathing oxygen?
 
I don't understand all the technicalities, but the root cause of the problem
seems to be an inappropriate response by MS and others to a real security
problem; .

By default, a user can write only to their own space. This applies both to
recent versions of Windows and to Linux.

From the point of view of (for example) members of a family, this is
hopelessly restrictive, as all users want access to the same documents,
photos, etc.

For most applications, you can do this by creating appropriate directory
structures and setting their 'share' attributes. MS and their acolytes don't
seem to understand that this is normally the way people want to work.
That's the polite way of putting it. More likely, they have they have found
they can drive loads of people crazy by always directing them to 'My
documents' and then concealing the files.

The really serious aspect of the problem is in fact that the directory
names in the 'My documents' structure are not in fact the real names. I also
get the impression that the real directory structure isn't what is seems.
This can be disastrous for important data like your family photos, family
tree, etc because unless you're a geek there is no way you can make a
reliable backup that can be accessed by another current or future OS (Vista
and XP don't seem to be compatible in this respect), or even stored safely
on a USB disk.

There is obviously no hope for Vista applications, and I wouldn't expect
Windows OS and software writers to change their attitude in the futuren and
stop thinking that Windows users are all idiots.

So, if an application always sends you to 'My documents', you'l just have
to keep on clicking. If it forces the use of 'My documents', you need
another application that copies the files to a real directory structure of
your own making, preferably on a different physical disk.

Regards
 
Daddy said:
I don't understand all the technicalities, but the root cause of the
problem seems to be an inappropriate response by MS and others to a real
security problem; .
Click to expand...

You are correct in that you've misunderstood how Vista works.
By default, a user can write only to their own space. This applies both to
recent versions of Windows and to Linux.
Click to expand...

This part is correct.
From the point of view of (for example) members of a family, this is
hopelessly restrictive, as all users want access to the same documents,
photos, etc.
Click to expand...

This part is where you misunderstand. You cannot write to other users' home
directories in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, Unix, or Mac OS X. That is
what the Public directory is for in Vista, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X. The
same directory is called "Shared Documents" in Windows XP.

For users running any of those operating systems, putting documents they
wish to share with other users of the computer in the Public (or Shared)
directory is the answer.

(snip next paragraph, which also misunderstands)

Applications create folders during their installation routines. As the OP
has already been told, the creation of those folders (and their location)
is up to the application, not the operating system. Applications that are
written to be compatible with particular operating systems will honor the
operating system's file system hierarchy and not have any problems. This is
not a Windows-centric situation.
The really serious aspect of the problem is in fact that the directory
names in the 'My documents' structure are not in fact the real names. I
also get the impression that the real directory structure isn't what is
seems.
Click to expand...

(more snippage of incorrect information)

It is not that the "My Documents" etc. do not bear their "real names". It is
that those are virtualized folders, only their for backwards compatibility
with older third-party software that expects My Documents, etc. to exist.
There is obviously no hope for Vista applications, and I wouldn't expect
Windows OS and software writers to change their attitude in the futuren
and stop thinking that Windows users are all idiots.
Click to expand...

Since you have misunderstood the actual structure of the operating system
and the way that *all* multi-user operating systems work, I would not give
up hope at this time. Nor should the OP.

Malke
 
in message
|I don't understand all the technicalities, but the root cause of the
problem
| seems to be an inappropriate response by MS and others to a real security
| problem; .
|
| By default, a user can write only to their own space. This applies both to
| recent versions of Windows and to Linux.
|
| From the point of view of (for example) members of a family, this is
| hopelessly restrictive, as all users want access to the same documents,
| photos, etc.

That's not on my topic. Usually when members of a family want to share
everything there is one single user account on that computer and everyone
uses it.


| For most applications, you can do this by creating appropriate directory
| structures and setting their 'share' attributes. MS and their acolytes
don't
| seem to understand that this is normally the way people want to work.
| That's the polite way of putting it. More likely, they have they have
found
| they can drive loads of people crazy by always directing them to 'My
| documents' and then concealing the files.
|
| The really serious aspect of the problem is in fact that the directory
| names in the 'My documents' structure are not in fact the real names. I
also
| get the impression that the real directory structure isn't what is seems.

The bad thing is that there are a lot of directories or NTFS links (that
does not hold anything which should be secured), but with attributes denying
access to everyone. They are hidden, but many power users prefer to see the
hidden+system files for security reasons. I also think that the Backup
Operators group must have access to everything includding compatibility
links like Documents and Settings.

Some directories are arranged better in Vista, there's the Local and Roming
AppData.

| This can be disastrous for important data like your family photos, family
| tree, etc because unless you're a geek there is no way you can make a
| reliable backup that can be accessed by another current or future OS
(Vista
| and XP don't seem to be compatible in this respect), or even stored safely
| on a USB disk.

With linux you can :-). Use the linux 'cp' or 'cat' commands to backup the
entire partition. It is simple, reliable and can be done from a live CD. You
can even mount the backup image and edit it ;-) (from linux)
I do something like
cat /dev/hda1 |7z ...
and the compressed image fits on a DVD+RW disk.

| There is obviously no hope for Vista applications, and I wouldn't expect
| Windows OS and software writers to change their attitude in the futuren
and
| stop thinking that Windows users are all idiots.

:-(

| So, if an application always sends you to 'My documents', you'l just have
| to keep on clicking. If it forces the use of 'My documents', you need
| another application that copies the files to a real directory structure of
| your own making, preferably on a different physical disk.

I believe you missunderstood me here. The default Save As location is not a
problem although the Desktop, being the work space is the best place. The
problem is that applications create directories like 'My Skype Pictures',
'Adobe' and so on... and one has enough programs, it becomes so crowded that
one hardly finds his own documents between the rest of the garbage. Worst is
these application take care to restore their useless folders upon every
startup, in case you have deleted them.

George Valkov



| "George Valkov" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de | (e-mail address removed)...
| > There seem to be a lot of Smart applications these days that want to
| > organise my documents in the way they want to and not the way I want to.
| >
| > In other words I have a lot of folders under My Documents, which I never
| > intend to use. So I delete these folders, but the next time I start an
| > application, it's folder is recreated. Currently I have modified the
| > permissions on My Documents, to deny:Create Folder. This works, but from
| > time to time some application will fail to reinstall and I have to
| > temporary
| > unprotect the folder.
| >
| > Another place is the SendTo folder and I really hate when Skype goes in
| > there.
| >
| > And for C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QTTask.exe
| > and some other nice applications, I have a software restriction policy
| > that
| > says "Disallowed" ;-) until I completely remove them.
| >
| >
| > My questions is:
| > Does anybody know a good and clean alternative or advice?
| > ~ restrict an application from creating a specific folder
| > ~ prevent anything from installing to specific locations, perhaps
redirect
| > the installation to a temporary folder (in order to succeed
installation),
| > where my cleanup script will take a good care of it.
| > Thank You for any!
| >
| >
| > George Valkov
| >
| >
|
|
 
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