Vista - Documents and Settings

Also, to clear up any misunderstanding:

I've done a completely new installation on a different hard drive to my XP
installation. I have a dual boot system.

This Documents and Settings surely must be part of Vista?

Instrestingly enough, the files I wanted do seem to be located under
/user/[a user]/AppData

Rather than Application Data or Documents and Settings folders which, under
closer inspection are actually shortcuts, though i cannot dtermine their
detination.



"Ben Griffiths" wrote:

> I belive I tried that at the time and recieved exactly the same permission
> warning. Though, I cannot remember.
>
> "Chris Altmann" wrote:
>
> > Try AppData instead of Application Data. There are similar new folders for
> > the others. I think it's part of the new security regime (and probably to
> > keep programs from hardcoding the paths to these folders instead of using
> > the APIs and envars).
> >
> >
> > "Ben Griffiths" <BenGriffiths@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > newsA74CD82-A997-46B5-B1A4-519513059EC3@microsoft.com...
> > > After finally managing to enable the Administrator account, I still
> > > apparently don't have permission to access the Documents and Settings
> > > folder.
> > > Neither can I access the Application Data in my User folder.
> > >
> > > So far, Vista is being extremely resrictive... I don't suppose there is a
> > > 'Let me in' tick box anywhere? Alternatively, how can I actually gain
> > > access
> > > to these folders? Vista advises me to use the Security tab, but one cannot
> > > 'Apply' any changes you make.
> >

That's what it looks like to me. When I first installed Vista (clean with
my XP drives offline) it created the Documents and Settings folder. I don't
believe it showed up until I changed the folder options to show everything
(system files and all.) I couldn't access them either, got the UAC message,
etc. I turned off UAC and fiddled with the permissions. I still get errors
that I can change them but somehow I'm able to access them.

Digging deeper I access the videos folder for my account under the Documents
and Settings folder structure and created a file. That file exists in the
Users structure as well.

This reminds me of the soft links you can setup in UNIX. I wasn't aware the
same could be done in Windows (at least not easily.) Maybe this is new or I
just never knew it could be done. It makes sense though. It's a good way
to insure backwards compatibility with a number of application that expect
the Documents and Settings folder. I don't know why MS felt this should be
changed, it was confusing at first. It makes sense and maybe in the future
they can handle this in the registry without having to show the soft links.


"Ben Griffiths" <BenGriffiths@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news12AC378-278A-4597-AC31-D69A204B615C@microsoft.com...
> Also, to clear up any misunderstanding:
>
> I've done a completely new installation on a different hard drive to my XP
> installation. I have a dual boot system.
>
> This Documents and Settings surely must be part of Vista?
>
> Instrestingly enough, the files I wanted do seem to be located under
> /user/[a user]/AppData
>
> Rather than Application Data or Documents and Settings folders which,
> under
> closer inspection are actually shortcuts, though i cannot dtermine their
> detination.
>
>
>
> "Ben Griffiths" wrote:
>
>> I belive I tried that at the time and recieved exactly the same
>> permission
>> warning. Though, I cannot remember.
>>
>> "Chris Altmann" wrote:
>>
>> > Try AppData instead of Application Data. There are similar new folders
>> > for
>> > the others. I think it's part of the new security regime (and probably
>> > to
>> > keep programs from hardcoding the paths to these folders instead of
>> > using
>> > the APIs and envars).
>> >
>> >
>> > "Ben Griffiths" <BenGriffiths@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
>> > message
>> > newsA74CD82-A997-46B5-B1A4-519513059EC3@microsoft.com...
>> > > After finally managing to enable the Administrator account, I still
>> > > apparently don't have permission to access the Documents and Settings
>> > > folder.
>> > > Neither can I access the Application Data in my User folder.
>> > >
>> > > So far, Vista is being extremely resrictive... I don't suppose there
>> > > is a
>> > > 'Let me in' tick box anywhere? Alternatively, how can I actually gain
>> > > access
>> > > to these folders? Vista advises me to use the Security tab, but one
>> > > cannot
>> > > 'Apply' any changes you make.
>> >

Yes you've been able to create reparse points on directories since Windows
2000, do a search on the linkd.exe command line tool on the web.

Vista is supposed to be adding support for regular symbolic links in
addition to hard links which have been supported for years.

Cheers

"Hank" <hkeleher@nc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:64B07750-2F1A-4A7A-B36A-3EDDC1A1AB7F@microsoft.com...
> That's what it looks like to me. When I first installed Vista (clean with
> my XP drives offline) it created the Documents and Settings folder. I
> don't believe it showed up until I changed the folder options to show
> everything (system files and all.) I couldn't access them either, got the
> UAC message, etc. I turned off UAC and fiddled with the permissions. I
> still get errors that I can change them but somehow I'm able to access
> them.
>
> Digging deeper I access the videos folder for my account under the
> Documents and Settings folder structure and created a file. That file
> exists in the Users structure as well.
>
> This reminds me of the soft links you can setup in UNIX. I wasn't aware
> the same could be done in Windows (at least not easily.) Maybe this is
> new or I just never knew it could be done. It makes sense though. It's a
> good way to insure backwards compatibility with a number of application
> that expect the Documents and Settings folder. I don't know why MS felt
> this should be changed, it was confusing at first. It makes sense and
> maybe in the future they can handle this in the registry without having to
> show the soft links.
>
>
> "Ben Griffiths" <BenGriffiths@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news12AC378-278A-4597-AC31-D69A204B615C@microsoft.com...
>> Also, to clear up any misunderstanding:
>>
>> I've done a completely new installation on a different hard drive to my
>> XP
>> installation. I have a dual boot system.
>>
>> This Documents and Settings surely must be part of Vista?
>>
>> Instrestingly enough, the files I wanted do seem to be located under
>> /user/[a user]/AppData
>>
>> Rather than Application Data or Documents and Settings folders which,
>> under
>> closer inspection are actually shortcuts, though i cannot dtermine their
>> detination.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Ben Griffiths" wrote:
>>
>>> I belive I tried that at the time and recieved exactly the same
>>> permission
>>> warning. Though, I cannot remember.
>>>
>>> "Chris Altmann" wrote:
>>>
>>> > Try AppData instead of Application Data. There are similar new folders
>>> > for
>>> > the others. I think it's part of the new security regime (and probably
>>> > to
>>> > keep programs from hardcoding the paths to these folders instead of
>>> > using
>>> > the APIs and envars).
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > "Ben Griffiths" <BenGriffiths@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
>>> > message
>>> > newsA74CD82-A997-46B5-B1A4-519513059EC3@microsoft.com...
>>> > > After finally managing to enable the Administrator account, I still
>>> > > apparently don't have permission to access the Documents and
>>> > > Settings
>>> > > folder.
>>> > > Neither can I access the Application Data in my User folder.
>>> > >
>>> > > So far, Vista is being extremely resrictive... I don't suppose there
>>> > > is a
>>> > > 'Let me in' tick box anywhere? Alternatively, how can I actually
>>> > > gain
>>> > > access
>>> > > to these folders? Vista advises me to use the Security tab, but one
>>> > > cannot
>>> > > 'Apply' any changes you make.
>>> >
>