Unable to access Documents and Settings

  • Thread starter Thread starter Walt
  • Start date Start date
W

Walt

I am mysteriously unable to access the C:\Documents and settings folder.
When I click on it I receive an "access denied" message. Once could and
don't know what changed.

Neither McAfee or Adaware (free) reveals any malware. I am the only user,
administrator priveleges. When I go to properties>securities tab for the
folder it says I have full control.

Any ideas?
 
Vista has no "Documents and Settings". Vista has Documents under your user
profile. "Documents and Settings" in Vista is a junction (shortcut) to allow
programs that reference that to get to the proper Vista folders. You are
not allowed to access or play with junctions.

Tyro
 
In Vista, "Documents and Settings" is not a folder.
Vista uses a different file structure than XP does/did. Those familiar
folder names you may be used to, like "My Documents", "Documents &
Settings", etc.
are not folders in Vista. They are junction points, and are used for legacy
programs which were written to utilize the XP file structure. They will
redirect the programs to use the equivalent Vista folders.
If you keep the protected operating system files hidden, you won't see them.

In Vista......
Documents & Settings -> \Users
My Documents -> \Users\youraccount\Documents
My Music -> \Users\youraccount\Music
Application Data -> \Users\youraccount\AppData
etc.
 
Thanks for the replies, BUT...

Folders which were once visible and accessible are no either no longer
visible or if visible, not accessible. I use to be able to go to Documents
on the start menu and from there find any folder or document I wanted. Not
anymore! Example: Media center can find my videos. I can not see the video
folder from Documents. I had to do a search for a sub folder and open the
subfolder from the search results pane. I could not get to it directly,
because the parent folder was inaccessible.

Something has changed in the folders hierarchy recently. I presume it was
the result of one of the recent Vista updates. But it is making it
difficult for me to manage my documents! I am slowly finding ways to get to
the folders. But this should not be necessary!
 
The video folder 'Videos' is directly under the user ID not under user
ID/documents. It has been that way since Vista came out.
I.e
c:\users\userid\Documents for documents
c:\users\userid\Videos for videos

if you were seeing c:\users\userid\Documents\Videos it was because of some
third party software or perhaps a link (shortcut) that you had placed there.


Michael
 
I should also add that on the start menu, you can click on your user name
and see all of folders - documents, music, videos etc. It's that easy.

Tyro
 
You can access the files in those "junction points" if you want to. You can
also access the files from the folders everyone has mentioned under
C:\Users.

To see why you can't access them , right click "my music" under "documents"
under "your username folder" that shows beneath "desktop". then click
properties and click the security tab on the property sheet. Click the
advanced button and make sure the leftmost tab "permissions" is displayed.

Now look at the list of permissions and you will see that "everyone" is
DENIED "listfolder/read data." This is the Default configuration. Everyone
means everyone, including admins, and "deny" means you can't have it. :)

Now go over to the owner tab and see who the owner is. The default is
"System." This is not you. Make yourself the owner, using an account with
administrative rights.

At this point you still cannot access anything, but you can remove or alter
the deny permission. Highlight the deny entry and click the "edit" button.
Now you'll get yet another edit screen; highlight the deny permission and
click the edit button again. Now you can delete the Deny permission, or
change the users to whom it applies. Do that.

Voila. You will be able to access the files in the folder. It may be
easier to simply go to C:\Users\ etcetera, but if you want to look in the
old style folders, the above will allow you to do so.

good luck,

Mike
 
MikeF said:
Voila. You will be able to access the files in the folder.
Click to expand...

And WHY on EARTH would anyone want to? There ARE no files in the folder
because it's NOT A FOLDER!!!!! It's a junction point, or symbolic link. All
it does is point to the Vista equivalent of the XP folder...
 
Gordon said:
And WHY on EARTH would anyone want to?
Click to expand...

You seem to be a bit of a---purist. I don't know why and I don't care why.
That was how to do it if he wanted to.

There ARE no files in the folder
because it's NOT A FOLDER!!!!! It's a junction point, or symbolic link.
All it does is point to the Vista equivalent of the XP folder...
Click to expand...

Who cares? If he wants to get in there, now he can. And if you really want
to be a purist, a folder is not a folder, it's a directory: a file composed
of a bunch of pointers. So the guy wants to get to a pointer to pointers,
BFD, don't get your panties in a bunch.
 
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