Applies To:

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Question

Jack Trade asked on

Folder Access Denied for Windows 7 Administrator

My Windows 7 crashed.

I need to reset a number of data files in my application data folders. However I cannot open these folders as "access is denied" e.g.

C:\Users\<ME AS ADMINSTRATOR>\AppData\Local\Application Data is not accessible. Access is denied.

Same "Access is Denied" with documents and settings, history, temp internet files, cookies etc. {edit: and LOCAL SETTINGS - this is getting critical - please help!!}

I have tried:

PROPERTIES > SECURITY TAB - administrator has greyed allow ticks against all - still cannot access folders
RESETTING SECURITY DEFAULTS - as per other solution for Vista - still cannot access folders

Please help.

Found this helpful 22

Answer

Steve Winograd replied on

Those are junction points : hidden, protected operating system files that are not meant to be accessed by users.
Each one points to a user-accessible folder:

Application Data - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming
Cookies - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
History - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
Local Settings - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local
My Documents - C:\Users\{user name}\Documents
NetHood - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
PrintHood - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts
Recent - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
SendTo - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
Start Menu - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Templates - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming
Temporary Internet Files - C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files

Steve Winograd

All Replies (12)

Found this helpful 1

Jack Trade replied on

D'oh!! Thanks so much Steve!! I appreciate it. Now to work out why Thunderbird isn't playing nice with it's profile.

Found this helpful 1

Steve Winograd replied on

You're welcome, Jack!

Boulder Computer Maven
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional

Steve Winograd

Found this helpful 0

johnk860 replied on

yeah, but I'm locked out of the pointed-to files. like c:\users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\

and this is a clean installation of Win7HP. I can change permissions but it takes an aeon. any suggestions for global authorization??

Found this helpful 1

Kipple replied on

All of this is total BULL! There are few DOS commands to enable access. I wish I remembered them. I used it for gaining access to the sync folder... Rats I wish I took note. It has nothing to do with permissions, there is a block and there as a command to turn it OFF, then all works just fine. Nothing to do with the typical **** answer "duh use runas"

Found this helpful 0

johnk860 replied on

Thanks for the response.... but you could have just said you didn't know either <lol> Hang in there. If you remember, type it in. Thanks again.

All of this is total BULL! There are few DOS commands to enable access. I wish I remembered them. I used it for gaining access to the sync folder... Rats I wish I took note. It has nothing to do with permissions, there is a block and there as a command to turn it OFF, then all works just fine. Nothing to do with the typical **** answer "duh use runas"

Found this helpful 1

alexmatt replied on

Thanks!

Junction points are definitely useful to applications. However, from GUI point of view, they are nothing but "Access is denied" shortcut.

From user's point of view, they should either be hidden or (I prefer the latter) enable user to navigate to the 'real folder' they are pointing to if user has enough permissions.

Found this helpful 1

mkitwrk replied on

It appears that these are symbolic links and that WIn7 hasn't got the wherewithal to follow the symlink to the real folder to assess the security settings. - Hence everyone's frustration.

For those of us who are extremely technical, we'd like to be able to remove and re-create a link as needed to test a scenario...

I've done it for years with Altos Xenix, SCO Xenix, SCO OS/5, AIX and Linux from Caldera 2.2 through todays versions... Windows has been moving in a direction to incorporate more *nix like concepts as they move away from their DOS orientation, but in the process they have focused on the "general user" at the expense of the "administrative user" (i.e. "root" in *nix)

I've always wanted to try a stripped down, non-backwards compatible, Windows Server. I'm sure it could be made admin-friendly and allow push updates without spending thousands of dollars on push-update software mechanisms... But so far, they've missed the boat.

I have 1 Win7Prof PC at home, 1 Mac and 2 Debian systems. Both the Win and OS/X systems make it very hard to administer/customize/etc. the OS. The 2 Debian systems give more bang for the buck and don't inhibit the root user at all once you make 2 changes (using "su root" as a user) in /etc/pam.d to allow logging into the desktop as root.

We can always hope MS will see those of us who recommend server platforms as a market at some point. (Wouldn't it be awesome to have basic *nix constructs available for admins? And "bash" vs. "cmd"?)

Found this helpful 3

pettusmike replied on

Ok...The computer is mine, the software is licensed to me...I want access to everything. If I screw it up, I can restore the entire hard drive from my Windows Home Server/ So...let me have access to MY system.

Found this helpful 1

JohnSkliros replied on

Microsoft has a DIFFERENT article on how to access these folders (points) which has worked for the ones I wanted to get into:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-access-denied-when-opening-files-or-folders

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