Solved: Access is denied

[DavePo]

Hello.
I have been fighting with "access is denied" message for my Shared Documents folder. Many months ago I went to this folder and tried to make it read only, so we would not erase any files. I'm not sure how I did that...I might have just tried to set the read only feature, or might have set up write protect when I shared the folder on my network. But I now cannot un-do whatever I did. Any attempt to delete any file or folder results in the Access is Denied message.
Windows does show that I am an administrator.
If I do the "properties" for the folder, it shows the properties box, but the only tabs shown are the General and Sharing.... but not a Security tab that I was expecting.
I tried doing a Windows Restore, but this wont restore anything before January, and I did this read only thing back in August.
Any help would be appreciated, and thank you in advance.

 

[richie19rich77]

Depending on OS.

Try going into Security Tab where you first set the permissions, and click on "Advanced", then click on the "Owner" tab.

There you will see a list of users that you can assign ownership to, select the user you are logged on with and click "Ok". Then re-apply the correct permissions.

This will only work if you are a "Administrator".

Cheers

 

[Elvandil]

What version do you have? Check Folder Options to see if Simple File Sharing is disabled so you can see the Security tab.

Try taking ownership (and remove the read-only attribute).

This needs to be done quite a bit in Vista, so if you want you can use this to add the option to your context menu instead of doing it manually:
Vista Take Ownership Context Menu

TakeControl is also useful.

 

[DavePo]

Hello, and thank you for the help.
Sorry to have omitted that I am using xp, service pack 2. It should be fairly up to date. Tea timer is running, along with norton antivirus. This is on a 4 year old Dell.
When I go to my Shared Documents folder and click on properties, I do not see a Security tab. Only see General and Sharing tabs.
Most other folders shows General, Sharing, and Customize. But I do not see a Security tab anywhere, on any folder.
When I check my user accounts in Control Panel, it does list me as an administrator.
I do not see the list of users, or any security tabs that Richie19Rich says I should look for.
Simple file sharing is not clicked, so I guess that means disabled.

Thanks again for any assistance.

 

[managed]

If it's XP Home you have to start in Safe Mode and log in as Administrator, then you should see the 'Security' tab.

 

[Elvandil]

You can make the Security tab appear with this:

XP Security Tab Home Edition

Be sure to use the "Undo" file when you are done.