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What are the padlock icons on folders for?

Featheriver asked on

In the documents library there are a number of padlock icons on folders. Not necessarily every folder but a lot of them. What does the padlock icon mean? What is it's use?

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The answered status icon Answer
Hannes3 replied on
After some investigations and experiments I found that the padlock is related to the group "Users" in the security settings of the particular folder. The meaning of the padlock seems to be "No access to (general) Users". Of course you may have access via special groups like "Administrators".

Addition:
The padlock also disappers if one of the groups "Everyone", "HomeUsers" or "Authenticated Users" at least has Read Access.
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The answered status icon Answer
Job Sam Varkey replied on

Hi Featheriver,

Nice to have you back in Microsoft Windows Forums.

This is a new feature of Windows 7 RC. If a folder's ownership is SYSTEM, the icon would appears.
To remove the icon, please change the ownership of the folders.

You can follow the steps mentioned below:

Change the permissions and take ownership of your files and folders.

When changing operating systems and migrating data, you might end up not being able to access some of your files or folders anymore. This can happen due to the fact that your user has lost ownership of those files & folders or it no longer has the required permissions. In this tutorial will try to address this type of issues and help our readers that reported having such problems.

Even though the procedure is a bit long, you will see that things are not very complicated.

If you cannot open, delete or change a folder from your disk, it means that you either need to take ownership of that folder or/and you need to change your user's access rights. To make this kind of change your user needs to be an administrator.

Both operations are done from the same menu. First, navigate to that specific folder, right click on it and select Properties.

1.      Taking Ownership

        i.            In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Advanced.

      ii.            Now go to the Owner tab. Here you will see the current owner of that folder. If your user is not the owner, click on Edit. If you have User Account Control enabled, press on OK.

        I.            In the Owner window, click on Other users or groups.

      II.            Now you need to type the user name or the group of users that will take ownership of the selected folder. If you type "Administrators" you will give ownership to all the users that are administrators on your PC. If you want to give ownership only to your user, then type your user name. After that, press on Check Names.

    III.            If the user or group was found on your computer, you will see that the text you typed was changed to [Your PC Name]\[User] or [Your PC Name]\[Group]. If so, press on OK.

    IV.            If the user/group was not found you will receive a Name Not Found error window. Make the necessary corrections and try again.

      V.            In the Owner window, select the user/group you just added, select Replace owner on subcontainers and objects and press OK.

    VI.            Now you will receive the confirmation that you have taken ownership of the folder. Press on OK and that's it.

 

2. Changing Permissions

        I.            In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Edit.

      II.            If you are not on the list of users or groups that have permissions defined, you should click on Add. If your user or group is on that list, select it, click on Allow Full Control and then press OK.

    III.            Now you need to type the user name or the group of users for which you want to change the permissions. If you type "Administrators" you will give permissions to all the users that are administrators on your PC. If you want to give permissions only to your user, then type your user name. After that, press on Check Names and then on OK.

    IV.            If the user/group was not found you will receive a Name Not Found error window. Make the necessary corrections and try again.

      V.            In the Security window, select the user/group you just added and then click on Allow Full Control and finally click OK.

 

For more information about the above steps refer to the link below:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-access-denied-when-opening-files-or-folders

 Hope this helps.

 Regards,
Sujan – Microsoft Support
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Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think

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The answered status icon Answer
Job Sam Varkey replied on

Hi Featheriver,

Nice to have you back in Microsoft Windows Forums.

This is a new feature of Windows 7 RC. If a folder's ownership is SYSTEM, the icon would appears.
To remove the icon, please change the ownership of the folders.

You can follow the steps mentioned below:

Change the permissions and take ownership of your files and folders.

When changing operating systems and migrating data, you might end up not being able to access some of your files or folders anymore. This can happen due to the fact that your user has lost ownership of those files & folders or it no longer has the required permissions. In this tutorial will try to address this type of issues and help our readers that reported having such problems.

Even though the procedure is a bit long, you will see that things are not very complicated.

If you cannot open, delete or change a folder from your disk, it means that you either need to take ownership of that folder or/and you need to change your user's access rights. To make this kind of change your user needs to be an administrator.

Both operations are done from the same menu. First, navigate to that specific folder, right click on it and select Properties.

1.      Taking Ownership

        i.            In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Advanced.

      ii.            Now go to the Owner tab. Here you will see the current owner of that folder. If your user is not the owner, click on Edit. If you have User Account Control enabled, press on OK.

        I.            In the Owner window, click on Other users or groups.

      II.            Now you need to type the user name or the group of users that will take ownership of the selected folder. If you type "Administrators" you will give ownership to all the users that are administrators on your PC. If you want to give ownership only to your user, then type your user name. After that, press on Check Names.

    III.            If the user or group was found on your computer, you will see that the text you typed was changed to [Your PC Name]\[User] or [Your PC Name]\[Group]. If so, press on OK.

    IV.            If the user/group was not found you will receive a Name Not Found error window. Make the necessary corrections and try again.

      V.            In the Owner window, select the user/group you just added, select Replace owner on subcontainers and objects and press OK.

    VI.            Now you will receive the confirmation that you have taken ownership of the folder. Press on OK and that's it.

 

2. Changing Permissions

        I.            In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Edit.

      II.            If you are not on the list of users or groups that have permissions defined, you should click on Add. If your user or group is on that list, select it, click on Allow Full Control and then press OK.

    III.            Now you need to type the user name or the group of users for which you want to change the permissions. If you type "Administrators" you will give permissions to all the users that are administrators on your PC. If you want to give permissions only to your user, then type your user name. After that, press on Check Names and then on OK.

    IV.            If the user/group was not found you will receive a Name Not Found error window. Make the necessary corrections and try again.

      V.            In the Security window, select the user/group you just added and then click on Allow Full Control and finally click OK.

 

For more information about the above steps refer to the link below:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-access-denied-when-opening-files-or-folders

 Hope this helps.

 Regards,
Sujan – Microsoft Support
Visit our
Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think

13 people found this helpful

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Hannes3 replied on

In the release version the padlock remains even after taking ownership of the folder (including all items in the folder. Maybe the meaning has changed.
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The answered status icon Answer
Hannes3 replied on
After some investigations and experiments I found that the padlock is related to the group "Users" in the security settings of the particular folder. The meaning of the padlock seems to be "No access to (general) Users". Of course you may have access via special groups like "Administrators".

Addition:
The padlock also disappers if one of the groups "Everyone", "HomeUsers" or "Authenticated Users" at least has Read Access.
36 people found this helpful

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zeusbear replied on

Hi Featheriver,

Nice to have you back in Microsoft Windows Forums.

This is a new feature of Windows 7 RC. If a folder's ownership is SYSTEM, the icon would appears.
To remove the icon, please change the ownership of the folders.

You can follow the steps mentioned below:

Change the permissions and take ownership of your files and folders.

When changing operating systems and migrating data, you might end up not being able to access some of your files or folders anymore. This can happen due to the fact that your user has lost ownership of those files & folders or it no longer has the required permissions. In this tutorial will try to address this type of issues and help our readers that reported having such problems.

Even though the procedure is a bit long, you will see that things are not very complicated.

If you cannot open, delete or change a folder from your disk, it means that you either need to take ownership of that folder or/and you need to change your user's access rights. To make this kind of change your user needs to be an administrator.

Both operations are done from the same menu. First, navigate to that specific folder, right click on it and select Properties .

1.       Taking Ownership

        i.             In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Advanced .

      ii.             Now go to the Owner tab. Here you will see the current owner of that folder. If your user is not the owner, click on Edit . If you have User Account Control enabled, press on OK .

        I.             In the Owner window, click on Other users or groups .

      II.             Now you need to type the user name or the group of users that will take ownership of the selected folder. If you type "Administrators" you will give ownership to all the users that are administrators on your PC. If you want to give ownership only to your user, then type your user name. After that, press on Check Names .

    III.             If the user or group was found on your computer, you will see that the text you typed was changed to [Your PC Name]\[User] or [Your PC Name]\[Group] . If so, press on OK .

    IV.             If the user/group was not found you will receive a Name Not Found error window. Make the necessary corrections and try again.

      V.             In the Owner window, select the user/group you just added, select Replace owner on subcontainers and objects and press OK .

    VI.             Now you will receive the confirmation that you have taken ownership of the folder. Press on OK and that's it.

 

2. Changing Permissions

        I.             In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Edit .

      II.             If you are not on the list of users or groups that have permissions defined, you should click on Add . If your user or group is on that list, select it, click on Allow Full Control and then press OK .

    III.             Now you need to type the user name or the group of users for which you want to change the permissions. If you type "Administrators" you will give permissions to all the users that are administrators on your PC. If you want to give permissions only to your user, then type your user name. After that, press on Check Names and then on OK .

    IV.             If the user/group was not found you will receive a Name Not Found error window. Make the necessary corrections and try again.

      V.             In the Security window, select the user/group you just added and then click on Allow Full Control and finally click OK.

 

For more information about the above steps refer to the link below:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-access-denied-when-opening-files-or-folders

 Hope this helps.

  Regards,
Sujan – Microsoft Support
Visit our
Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think


There is a MUCH easier way,  create a random directory and COPY the files here, the icon is now gone.  Now justr move them back to where they were and problem solved
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StJohnny22 replied on

Ok, so I have all of my music files. (.mp3) There's about 1400 of them. and they all have padlock icons. This appeared after i streamed a few things over my XBOX 360.

 

Obviously I don't want to do the permissions steps for all 1400 files and the copy and replace method wont work because windows will not recognize my (the only user account) as the administrator. the Users folder does not have any other users in it and i cannot figure out how to make windows 7 recognize me as the administrator. 

 

several other threads ive read said this is a nasty bug, and hopefully windows will fix it soon.

 

does anyone know of ANY way (besides changing permissions on 1400 files) that i can fix this?

Im pretty close to just backing up what i can and doing a complete system (factory) restore.

please help. thanks!

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Aeon100 replied on

Right click on the folder or file.  Choose "Share with" and in the sub-menu, choose "Homegroup (Read)."  The lock disappears.

 

The lock appears when a Private item is contained by one with greater permissions.

 

Works on my machine!

 

Source:  http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/lock-padlock-icon-files-folders-windows-7/

 

 

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Punchard-Steve replied on

Aeon100, I used the "Share with" remedy and it worked.
It adds a Home Users group with 'Read&execute', 'List folder contents' and 'Read' permissions.
I have also used the Authenticated User and Everyone mod.  They cover up the problem.

Why the locks appear is a mystery given my observation below.

I have two computers, one "My Documents" in an admin user folder has a lock and the other computer's "My Documents" for an admin user does not. 
They look identical from the Security tab dialogs point of view.  All permissions are identical and neither have one of the Everyone, Auth Users, or Home user group permissions.

I doubt that Microsoft has anyone that knows why these keep appearing.  But they are irritating as once again for the about 5th time I lost access to some basic folders in my user account today.  What is really nice is the true Administrator account also lost access.

My preferred solution is to reinstall the OS every year or two.  There are very few of the locks on objects after the install.

Oh and virus scans with ESET and MS Sec. Suite are clean.
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Punchard-Steve replied on

I wanted to follow up on how I have repaired last nights lock icon and denied access problems.

I found another forum and read about similar issues that were related to desktop icons not displaying correctly.  That reminded me of the Microsoft tool FixIt.  I used this once a long time ago to fix a  corrupt icon cache.  It can be downloaded here:
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/system_maintenance_for_windows/

CAUTION:  backup your My Documents, all the user accounts My Documents and Public Documents.
FixIt DELETED ALL the folders and files in My Documents on the user account I was having probs with.
I ran this tool, it found icon cache, recycle bin and some permission issues then repaired them.

IMPORTANT: I now have full access to the restored My Documents and the none of the folder or files in My Documents have locks, or any of the permissions for Everyone, Authenticated Users or Home Users.

The problem for me with those fixes is that users may be able to access other users files.  Even on my personal computer I have a web account that is limited and can not access my main user.  I do not want across the board read permissions for all files and folders.

I am suspicious of Media Player 12 video streaming via DLNA.  Yesterday I setup Media Player 12 to stream some YouTube to my TV.  MP modified permissions and who knows what else.  A few hours later I noticed things were broken. 
Happy Trails
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TR # Suresh Ramasamy replied on

After some investigations and experiments I found that the padlock is related to the group "Users" in the security settings of the particular folder. The meaning of the padlock seems to be "No access to (general) Users". Of course you may have access via special groups like "Administrators".

Addition:
The padlock also disappers if one of the groups "Everyone", "HomeUsers" or "Authenticated Users" at least has Read Access.

Great tips!

It helps me to solve the issue, when i add the users group in to security tab on folder the padlock icon disappears.

Thanks for the tips.

TR Suresh @ Suresh Ramasamy

TR @ Suresh Ramasamy
System Admin With 10+ Years of Experience in IT industry.
MCSE,CCNA,ACMT,HP,IBM
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TR # Suresh Ramasamy replied on

 The padlock also disappers if one of the groups "Everyone", "HomeUsers" or "Authenticated Users" at least has Read Access.

Thanks for the tips.

TR Suresh @ Suresh Ramasamy

TR @ Suresh Ramasamy
System Admin With 10+ Years of Experience in IT industry.
MCSE,CCNA,ACMT,HP,IBM
1 person found this helpful

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