Help! New to Vista - Folder access issue

Hi,

I am new to Vista having just purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium running on it. As a long time user of Windows XP, I have encounterd a Vista issue that perpelexes me.

From my days with XP, I am quite used to access files in most system folders, to check on them or occasionly even modify them - for example changing the Startup layout.

However, in Vista, I am unable to access such directories as "Application data" or "Local Settings" even while using my administrator account. These aand other inaccessible directories have a unique icon with an arrow running through it, as if they were shortcut files. This suggests that they are somehow special to Vista.

My question is whether these files are really unacessable to all users with even the highest security privleges, or have I configured something wrong in Vista's rather "curious" security system?

Any suggestions or commnts are most welcome.

Thanks,

psbecker

Hi psbecker,

Welcome to Vista Forums.

See if taking ownership of the file first helps, then try modifing it.

Take Ownership of file

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks for the quick response.

Using the referenced article, I checked the ownership of the directories I was interested in and found that the current owner is "system." If I take ownership of these directories, will that somehow confuse Vista? The reason I ask is that since I cannot touch files owned by "system" will taking ownership prevent Vista from doing what it needs to do with files in those directories? What I really don't want to do is mess up the OS.

Thanks again,

psbecker

psbecker,

No, it will just also allow you to have full control over that file too.

Shawn

The folders you can't access are "Virtual folders" to keep compatibility with 9x/XP programs; they're a sort of shortcut or alias for System only. They're all matched by folders you can access (for example, 'Application Data' = 'appdata'), best thing is to ignore them. If you have 'Show Hidden files' off they disappear; it's a great pity you can't just hide the 'access denied' folders.

For the Start menu, right-click on the Start Button & Explore - takes you straight there, you can create a proper menu system with some folders in it. .

Thanks for all the feedback. Looks like I just need to learn where Vista hides all the files I used to play with in XP.

By the way, I did try the suggestion of taking ownership of the blocked directories. I gave them to my admin account but still cannot access them. Very annoying.

There's a number listed here along with a better explanation.
And something for you to play with,
Access Denied to Documents and Settings*-*Vista