Vista - Cannot delete or rename folder

I have Vista pre-installed on a new desktop that I have just purchased.

I have had lots of problems but since disabling the UAC most of them have
cleared up. However, I have folders in Documents installed from a zipped
backup from a Windows XP machine and I cannot delete or rename these folders.

Hello,

You will need to give yourself permission to access these folders.

I will assume here that you are running Home Basic or Premium, since you
didn't mention what edition you are running ... if you have Business or
Ultimate, there are easier ways to accomplish this.

This will require some familiarity with the command prompt.

- Click start
- Type: cmd
- Right-click it when it appears under programs, and click Run As
Administrator
- cd to the folder that you need access to (e.g., cd
c:\users\USER\documents\folder)
- Type: icacls . /grant USERF) /T /C /L /Q
(Where USER is your user name)
- Press enter


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

It's OK almost - found another post that suggested you delete any folders
inside the folder you are trying to delete first. I did this and managed to
delete the folder.

Question - will this be fixed - it seems to be a rather odd and unfriendly
feature!

Jimmy Brush wrote:
> Hello,
>
> You will need to give yourself permission to access these folders.
>
> I will assume here that you are running Home Basic or Premium, since you
> didn't mention what edition you are running ... if you have Business or
> Ultimate, there are easier ways to accomplish this.
>
> This will require some familiarity with the command prompt.
>
> - Click start
> - Type: cmd
> - Right-click it when it appears under programs, and click Run As
> Administrator
> - cd to the folder that you need access to (e.g., cd
> c:\users\USER\documents\folder)
> - Type: icacls . /grant USERF) /T /C /L /Q
> (Where USER is your user name)
> - Press enter
>
>
I have been having the same problem, I tried this but it doesn't work.
It changes the permissions ok but files still can't be deleted.

Hi

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. I am using Home Premium.

Could you please let me know what caused the problem - is it a feature or a
bug? Do I have to run the cmd once only or evey time I load files. It is not
very user friendly!

I did what I thought was a common task. I inserted a CD, copied a zip file
onto my desktop and extracted the contents into a folder in Documents. Why
was I not automatically given permission when I did this? I consider that as
an administrator of the system I should be given "carte blanche" to do what I
like to any file I have created, copied etc.

This is the first windows system I have used that has required any sort of
command prompt for such a simple task. Also, you seem to imply that if I
upgrade to Business or Ultimate then the problem will disappear or become
easier to deal with. But really, for a task such as this surely the very
basic package should be able to cope.

Regards

"Jimmy Brush" wrote:

> Hello,
>
> You will need to give yourself permission to access these folders.
>
> I will assume here that you are running Home Basic or Premium, since you
> didn't mention what edition you are running ... if you have Business or
> Ultimate, there are easier ways to accomplish this.
>
> This will require some familiarity with the command prompt.
>
> - Click start
> - Type: cmd
> - Right-click it when it appears under programs, and click Run As
> Administrator
> - cd to the folder that you need access to (e.g., cd
> c:\users\USER\documents\folder)
> - Type: icacls . /grant USERF) /T /C /L /Q
> (Where USER is your user name)
> - Press enter
>
>
> --
> - JB
> Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User
>
> Windows Vista Support Faq
> http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
>

Hi

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. I am using Home Premium.

Could you please let me know what caused the problem - is it a feature or a
bug? Do I have to run the cmd once only or evey time I load files. It is not
very user friendly!

I did what I thought was a common task. I inserted a CD, copied a zip file
onto my desktop and extracted the contents into a folder in Documents. Why
was I not automatically given permission when I did this? I consider that as
an administrator of the system I should be given "carte blanche" to do what I
like to any file I have created, copied etc.

This is the first windows system I have used that has required any sort of
command prompt for such a simple task. Also, you seem to imply that if I
upgrade to Business or Ultimate then the problem will disappear or become
easier to deal with. But really, for a task such as this surely the very
basic package should be able to cope.

Regards


"Jimmy Brush" wrote:

> Hello,
>
> You will need to give yourself permission to access these folders.
>
> I will assume here that you are running Home Basic or Premium, since you
> didn't mention what edition you are running ... if you have Business or
> Ultimate, there are easier ways to accomplish this.
>
> This will require some familiarity with the command prompt.
>
> - Click start
> - Type: cmd
> - Right-click it when it appears under programs, and click Run As
> Administrator
> - cd to the folder that you need access to (e.g., cd
> c:\users\USER\documents\folder)
> - Type: icacls . /grant USERF) /T /C /L /Q
> (Where USER is your user name)
> - Press enter
>
>
> --
> - JB
> Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User
>
> Windows Vista Support Faq
> http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
>

It sounds like the files may be in use - files that are in use cannot be
deleted.

Try rebooting your computer in safe mode and then trying to delete the
files.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

<snip>
> Could you please let me know what caused the problem - is it a feature or
> a
> bug? Do I have to run the cmd once only or evey time I load files. It is
> not
> very user friendly!
>

Yeah, it's not very friendly. And it only has to be done once. Microsoft's
marketing department decided that non-business users didn't need a
friendlier way to do this. *sighs*.

> I did what I thought was a common task. I inserted a CD, copied a zip file
> onto my desktop and extracted the contents into a folder in Documents. Why
> was I not automatically given permission when I did this? I consider that
> as
> an administrator of the system I should be given "carte blanche" to do
> what I
> like to any file I have created, copied etc.

In Windows Vista, *you* do have "carte blanche" (administrator) access to
the computer; however, PROGRAMS that you run don't - unless they ask for
your permission ("Windows needs your permission to continue") or you give
them permission (right-click them and click Run As Administrator).

So, files on your computer that you can only access via your administrator
"hat" (you do not explicitly have permission to access, but administrators
do) can only be opened from a program that you have allowed to run with
"permission".

Now, files in your documents folder *do* grant YOU access to them, so
normally you should be able to access these files from any program that you
run.

However, it sounds like the files that you unzipped had saved their previous
security settings from XP, and these security settings were restored with
the files, overriding the default security applied to your documents.

Since Windows Vista will not recognize your old Windows XP account as yours,
it won't give you access to those files, except thru your administrator
"hat".

> This is the first windows system I have used that has required any sort of
> command prompt for such a simple task. Also, you seem to imply that if I
> upgrade to Business or Ultimate then the problem will disappear or become
> easier to deal with. But really, for a task such as this surely the very
> basic package should be able to cope.

The only difference in Business/Ultimate is that you can see/edit security
permissions via a file properties dialog box.

It does not affect this "issue" - this issue is based on the security
permissions of files. Technically, it has always been an issue, but since
Vista is more security than XP, most people are only now running into this.

Most people will run into this issue if they are dual-booting or accessing
hard drives or folders created in a previous version of Windows.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/