Does Win7 prevent you from opening certain folders?

[Skyhawk]

Vista prevents me from opening certain system folders while I never had that problem running WinXP. Does Win7 act like Vista or WinXP in this regard?

Thanks,
Sky

[johnrr6]

You should be able to see the contents of ANY folder-----you just have to set the folder preference to be able to see protected system files and unhide protected folders.....

In Vista, open any folder...
click the "Organize" button
Select "Folder and Search Options"
Select the "View" tab
Check "Show hidden files and folders"

and----if necessary---uncheck "Hide protected operating system files"

but you probaly would never need to do the second step----in fact----the second step is RARELY recommended and I would NOT do it unless I absolutely had to access a certain sys file.

The behavior is the same in Windows 7

[Skyhawk]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

You should be able to see the contents of ANY folder-----you just have to set the folder preference to be able to see protected system files and unhide protected folders.....

In Vista, open any folder...
click the "Organize" button
Select "Folder and Search Options"
Select the "View" tab
Check "Show hidden files and folders"

and----if necessary---uncheck "Hide protected operating system files"

but you probaly would never need to do the second step----in fact----the second step is RARELY recommended and I would NOT do it unless I absolutely had to access a certain sys file.

The behavior is the same in Windows 7

Hi Johnrr6,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry I didn't explain what I meant better. I am familiar with all that you mentioned and always enable seeing everything on my hard drives. My problem is this:

In Vista, I navigate to C:\Users\MyUserName
When I click on any folder that has a curved arrow up icon like the following folders:
- Application Data
- Cookies
- Local Settings
- My Documents
- SendTo
- Start Menu
- Templates
- etc.

I get the following popup:

"Location is not available
C:\Users\MyUserName\Application Data is not accessible.
Access is denied."

I've never been denied access to any folder in WinXP. Does Win7 act like Vista or WinXP in this regard?

Thanks!
Sky

[Rick_EE]

I have found that in Win 7, even if the user is an administrator, you sometimes need to explicitly grant administrative access to see folders, especially of another user. At least this is true with Home Premium.

Unfortunately, am currently on my work Xp computer, so I can't exactly tell you how.

[DrStrange]

Hi skyhawk.

"Many folders used by earlier versions of
Windows have been moved to a new location or given a new name in Windows
Vista and Windows 7. However, the old folders can still be seen if you have enabled
Show Hidden Files. Notice they are displayed with a transparent icon
and a shortcut symbol.

Although these look like folders, they are actually what is known as a
junction. Junctions behave like shortcuts, but look just like regular
folders. Their purpose is to silently redirect programs that access them
to their Windows Vista and 7 equivalents.
The reason you get an Access Denied on
these junctions has nothing to do with the fact that they are junctions.
These junctions have a specific Access Denied access control entry (ACE)for
the Everyone group on their discretionary access control list (DACL). It is
definitely possible, though not recommended, to access those junctions by
modifying the DACL."

There are a couple of ways you can get access to these folders.

Method 1:
Change the security settings as in the paragraph above. To do this:
right click on any folder you want access to and select properties;
click security tab;
click advanced button;
click change permissions;
make sure that Everyone line is highlighted and click edit;
change the "list folder/read data" entry from deny to allow;
keep clicking ok until you are back at the original window that your folder is in;
You should be able to access your folder.

Method 2:
I personally use the bought version of "Total Commander" (run as an admin) which will allow direct access to these junction folders and display the location of the actual folder without having to change the security settings as described in method 1. You may find a freeware file manager which will do the same thing, if you do not want to change the security settings or pay for this software?

Method 3:
As it says above, these junction folders behave like shortcuts, so if you know where the original folders are, you can open them directly without needing to change the security permission, eg
Application Data folder is at C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming
Cookies folder > C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
Local Settings > C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local
My Documents > C:\Users\Username\Documents
PrintHood > C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts
Recent > C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
Send To > C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
Start Menu > C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Templates > C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates

Note that it is the Everyone user group only that is preventing access, so it is confusing to be logged in as an admin and find the system denying access!
Apparently junction points were available in Windows XP but not officially supported by Microsoft until Vista onwards.

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by DrStrange

... Junctions behave like shortcuts ...

except that they are not shortcuts but proxies for the target directories and files. So for example deleting a junction may delete the target (depending on the method and OS version you use). Deleting a shortcut wont delete the target.
They also have some limitations under XP's API
In Vista these are known as Symbolic Links.

There is no need to change security ACL settings on these as these links only provide backward compatibility for you and are effectively "system" files with no impact to anything else.

[Skyhawk]

Rick_EE, DrStrange and zapionics,

Thanks a lot for your responses.
DrStrange, thanks for that really detailed explantion! Couldn’t ask for a better explantion of how to access the denied folders. Have book marked your response for future use.

EDIT: So it appears that Win7 does deny access to folders similar to Vista. Too bad since the lack of flexibility in admin mode is what I dislike most in Vista.

If there are any Mac and Microsoft OS users out there, does the Mac OS also deny access to folders in a similar manner?

Thanks,
Sky