Windows 7 padlock icon on files?

[Technical Ben]

Just made an image in a program. However, I have a padlock picture on the file. Now I guess this means it is locked, or has rights distribution permissions or some other rubbish* like that.
Does anyone know how to get rid of it? Especially as I am sending it to someone else. I don't want there to be any difficulty opening the file. :/

*Also knows as DRM. But I think it's something to do with users in Windows 7 instead.

[kinmel]

Even users with Administrator rights get locked out sometimes in windows 7.

This works if your lucky ........

Right click on folder with the file in and choose properties. ( if you do the folder rather than just the one file, you avoid the problem in the future )

Choose security tab and then advanced.

Permission choices will indicate that "everyone" is in deny status.  So choose "change permissions" and remove everyone.

Then I select the Owner tab and click on "edit".  My current owner shows SYSTEM as owner.  I make the owner be my user account,   now, at last,  you can grant Everyone Allow permissions

You must go to  the lowest level of folders and change them all.  I have tried doing the highest folder in the hierachy but it does not change all the children folders.  SO you must do make the changes folder by folder. 

[Technical Ben]

I don't have an "everyone" option. Only, me, System, and admin.
I hate windows 7 permissions...
And had the same trouble getting files off my old xp machine .
Hate permissions.
I think it's just Corel Draw being over enthusiastic about copyright protection, so the file is in "read only" mode. As long as they can see it.
Got a reply by email, so must be ok.
Did I mention I hate windows 7 permission bloatware?

[esh]

If you are sending the file the permission will not propagate with it. The permissions are part of the filesystem and not the file itself.

The Windows 7 "permissions bloatware" is why Windows can now be used reasonably in a corporate environment and is not some utter travesty it was 15 years ago where such things just didn't exist. Admittedly, it's kind of welded on to an underlying system that didn't originally have such a thing which makes it seem overly complex, but honestly... it's for the best. Having everyone be able to edit everyone's files and trash the system at the drop of a hat is not good for anyone. Trust me, you may not see it now, but it's not just a "good thing" but mandatory for a modern operating system.

Make sure you are saving files to your Documents folder. Plus, ensure your version of the program is properly Windows 7 compatible. It sounds like it isn't and is doing something dumb with the file permissions. Are you running the app with Administrator rights? That might be a reason. As kimmel indicated, you simply need to take ownership of the file, then give yourself all the read/write permissions. If you're still having trouble, give me a message and I will try and help out.

[Technical Ben]

Sorry. I am going to be stubbon. I am not saying files to the "my documents" folder. I have my own folder for them. Can I tell Windows to include this with my documents? But then, I don't want it limiting access. Why? Because if the PC goes tits up (AKA my old laptop) I do not want to be locked out of every file.
Oh, and did you see it does not work on child folders/files?
So I have no trouble with access control. I just see it as completely broken in implementation atm.
Such as, how to I select "everyone?". I have, me, admin, and system. All 3 are password/locked out. It's no fun.

[esh]

Okay. The following should get your a folder (with containing files and subfolders) under your complete control with minimal security. It's obviously not trivial because such a thing is slightly hazardous. You should be aware that the owner can always do anything with a file/folder. Sometimes you can be owner of a folder but not have permissions to open/write in the directory, but since you are owner, you can always add permissions to let yourself do that. Here we go step by step anyway, Windows 7 x64 professional.

Find your root folder which you want to control, right-click it, and press Properties.


Go to the Security tab and press Advanced.


Go to the Owner tab. Check you are the owner, or are in the owners group. Since my account is an Administrator, I don't need to do anything here. If you want to specify yourself specifically or need to change it, hit Edit. The shield icon means you need Admin authority to continue.


Click the user or group to change the owner to, then check the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" check box. Hit OK. You will likely now need to close all the boxes opened and start from step 1 again because the permissions have completely changed.


Assuming you didn't need to change the owner in the Advanced->Owner tab, go to the Permissions tab instead. Click Change Permissions.


Uncheck "Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent", a warning will appear. Press Add. What this means is that folders beneath this one can no longer change the permissions of this folder. You add the current permissions so admins and the system can access the folder like normal (these were inherited from the parent folder before).


Check "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object", which ensures all subfolders behave as expected. Press Add. Type in the box "everyone" and press Check Names. The word "everyone" should become underlines. Press OK.


The permission entry box will appear. Check 'Allow' on 'Full Control' and press OK.


Press OK again. A warning will appear. Resetting all permissions on the folder and files cannot be undone. Press Yes, and wait. Close the other boxes when done.

[Rik]

Nice work, esh. 

[kinmel]

Very nice work Esh 

In which universe would a user want to create a file and then not be able to use it ? Only in Windows 7 when a guy in Seattle decides to save you from yourself.

If only there was a magic menu option " I am a user and have administrator privileges on every PC on the whole of my industry standard firewalled network, so go away"

It just does not have to be this hard to work.

[Rik]

I'm with you, Alan. Leave me alone to run the computer the way I want.

[esh]

In which universe would a user want to create a file and then not be able to use it ?

Usually a configuration or password file that only system services can read.

Honestly if you just save to your Documents folder then you should have no issues accessing/editing the files. Creating folders elsewhere on the drive will run into problems because of the inherited permissions I talked about. If, however, you are an admin account you should be able to access and tinker with all user files, but possibly not ones marked for system, in which case you need to take ownership. As an example, I cannot directly edit a config file inside Program Files. It must be copied outside, edited, and then copied back. This is a UAC/security thing.

If you are still stuck, give me a feeling for exactly what you're doing and I can probably figure out why it's going wrong.

[Simon]

Great walkthrough, Esh. 

[kinmel]

Usually a configuration or password file that only system services can read.

Honestly if you just save to your Documents folder then you should have no issues accessing/editing the files. Creating folders elsewhere on the drive will run into problems because of the inherited permissions I talked about. If, however, you are an admin account you should be able to access and tinker with all user files, but possibly not ones marked for system, in which case you need to take ownership. As an example, I cannot directly edit a config file inside Program Files. It must be copied outside, edited, and then copied back. This is a UAC/security thing.

If you are still stuck, give me a feeling for exactly what you're doing and I can probably figure out why it's going wrong.

You are perfectly correct of course, as long as I do it exactly as Redmond have decided, then I am allowed the illusion of having some control over my own computers.

I don't want the O.S. to choose where I store stuff, I can remember where I put it.

I would not mind all the hand holding, if they just provide users with a simple option to kill it all.

When a PC goes belly up, it makes data recovery unnecessarily hard.

[Technical Ben]

Thanks, I'll have to save that one.
I also find my desktop ends up cluttered, as Winzip etc do not get granted permission to unzip into my programs folder, for software.

[esh]

It does require a bit of a paradigm shift. It started with Windows XP; prior to that games put saves in the folder for the respective game, and in the Win 3.1 days each app had an .ini file in their directories. As I said, there are reasons for these things, but they are not always convenient, intuitive, and definitely not obvious. If you really do want a strong control over your system and aren't a power user when it comes to graphics/video/gaming then a Unix based system will most likely be your cup of tea. I've seen some Linux installs actually delete the entire of Linux while online and carry on running for a bit.

[Rik]

I think this thread warrants becoming a sticky to make esh's tutorial easily available. A tutorial well worthy of a .

[JB]

Just as a follow up to this thread. If you can't be bothered with all the chopping and changing you could do what I did and install a free program called 'FreeCommander'. You can download it from :-

http://www.freecommander.com/fc_downl_en.htm

This is a Norton explorer clone. I use it all the time for moving and copying files on my computers. It also allows you to copy to and from your network and even has a built in FTP client. It's a brilliant program and I wouldn't be without it on any of my computers. It allows you full access to hidden and padlocked directories.

Try it and you will wonder how you managed without it before!

[Rik]

Thanks, JB, I used to use Norton Commander back in DOS days, it was a handy program.

[Ted]

Code Select Expand


chown technicalben padlockedfile


Code Select Expand


chmod padlockedfile -rwxrwxrwx


Job done! 

[JB]

Code Select Expand


chown technicalben padlockedfile


He He!

I cut my teeth on Slackware many years ago when use of the CLI was absolute requirement. Still run one flavour or another of Linux on different machines here. MythTV box sits upstairs. Have just replaced the cable with CAT6. Makes a big difference to getting programmes of it for editing downstairs.

[Technical Ben]

Cool. I don't need root permissions, just have the permissions STICK to the folders (not files/etc). Win 7 seems to change it's mind every 5 mins. 
Might have a go redoing the permissions then... after a backup!

[DorsetBoy]

More info here >

http://www.blogsdna.com/2159/how-to-take-ownership-grant-permissions-to-access-files-folder-in-windows-7.htm


and a nice little tool caled Take Ownership and how to use it at sevenforums >


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html

[esh]

I'd just like to take a quick moment to discuss an oddity I encountered the other week, Windows 7, 64-bit.

I was having difficulty deleting a folder, which I realised was most likely because I did not have permissions (I was getting 'Access Denied'). I employed the usual tactic as discussed above to take ownership but this was also "access denied". I couldn't even peruse the current auth permissions because I neither had permission for that! However, after a reboot, the folder had gone. It seems that the folder and its permissions had been deleted but the pointers in the file system hadn't been removed, likely because some program still had a handle to it.

The lesson in general here is to let the Uninstall apps do their thing rather than delete things yourself. Plus, even Windows 7 clearly needs a reboot every now and again