Vista - Newly created files protected from further access

I have experience using Windows ME, NT, 2000, and XP, but this issue with
Visth Home Premium is totally new to me. When I create a new file from an
application it will be created with full protection so that I can't read or
write it again. When viewed under Cygwin, for example, the protections are
"----------" rather than the expected "-rw-r--r--". I'll immediately see an
error message after writing the file as well, even though all of the data is
successfully written to the file. I've seen this happen with PowerPoint,
Microsoft Word, XnView, gVim, and several other applications. If I use
Cygwin to change the protections, like with "chmod 644", things are fine and
I can now access the file normally. However, any application that keeps the
old file as a backup and creates a new one when I update a file will then
have a fully protected new file once again and I have to go through the
procedure over again.

It doesn't do this all of the time, but more often than not this is the
behavior.

I'm hoping that there is just some setting in Vista Home Premium that I can
change that will make this annoying behavior go away. I would like all new
files to have the Unix equivalent of either 644 or 666.

Additional background information: I've set the machine up with one account
that does not require a password. Since the machine is secure in my home and
my wife and I are the only ones to ever use it, I don't see the point of
having multiple accounts on the machine.

I've only owned this machine for a few weeks.

I moved a hard drive from the previous Windows ME machine to this one and
all of the old files can be accessed just fine, but the file protection
behavior occurs on both the hard drive the machine came with and the drive
added from the old machine.

Do you have Norton installed?

"Scott R. Nelson" <Scott R. Nelson@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:B2523867-BC69-4A73-A4AA-4C13D7412E28@xxxxxx

"Bob" wrote:
No. Any other things like that I should consider?

It's a Compaq Presario, so it came with Windows Defender and some Symantec
protection software, but I've disabled the Symantec stuff from starting up
when I boot the computer.

I think I've figured this out.

The solution seems to be to turn off User Account Control.

I did that and changed the owner of the base directory where I want to store
things to be my username rather than Administrators.

I realize that I'm giving up a few protections, it's "protecting" me from
doing what I need to do. Besides, this machine is physically protected from
unauthorized use anyway.