Cannot change READ ONLY file attributes using Administrator Account

Anonymous

I have tried windows explorer and a custom program called Directory Opus. I have tried creating several administrator accounts but no luck.

I cannot work with this problem existing.

I need a solution.

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Anonymous

I have the exact same issue. Following the steps above did not work, the folder/subfolders remain Read-Only. I am the owner of the folder and subfolders. I'm not even sure how they became Read-Only to begin with. Setting Read-Only on individual files works properly. Changing folder settings does not.

***IMPORTANT EDIT:

According to a Microsoft Knowledge Base post:

You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders

To summarize, Windows ignores System or Read-Only settings on folders (it does not ignore those properties on FILES however). Individual applications that you are running may not ignore the Read-Only status on a folder and may give an error. In my situation, an application was attempting to create a new file in a folder that was marked as Read-Only and it honored the RO setting and refused to try to create the new file.

To actually change these attributes, the Properties menu will not work. From the KB source:

If you click Apply changes to this folder only , the Read-only attribute is changed for all the files in the folder. However, the Read-only attribute is not changed for the folder, its subfolders, or any files in its subfolders. If you click Apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files , the Read-only attribute is changed for all files in the folder and all files in the subfolders. However, the Read-only attribute is not changed for the folder or its subfolders.

In order to change these properties, the user must launch a command line terminal and execute the changes by hand, such as this command:

attrib -r +s c:\test

...which will remove the READ-ONLY setting and apply the SYSTEM setting to the folder. Once again, changing properties of files (including files in subfolders) works as expected with the right-click Properties -> Security menu.

Knowledge Base source:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326549

Bad support, MS.

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77 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-01-12T07:05:53+00:00
the command I used was
- attrib -r +s c:\Users*any*\*.* /s /d
-r removes read only

+s adds to system folder

your file location followed by *.* to change all types of documents

/s include subfiles and directories

/d include folders

/d is the important part so that it changes the folder settings as well
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Anonymous

2013-10-21T18:46:41+00:00

Sadly, this did not work for me because the files were in use my Altiris and therefore could not be deleted. Is there a legitimatefix for this?
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Anonymous

2013-10-17T17:03:56+00:00

I am trying to add a file into an install directory and are getting the same issue. I had to give up and put the file somewhere else under my control. I think this is a "gap" in their user interface design. You can run programs as administrators to do privileged things but exactly how to add a file as administrator... good luck with that.

btw, I tried running cmd.exe as administrator and then do the attrib command. That did not work. It didn't complain but it didn't work either.

I agree that this is ridiculous. On linux this would have been:

sudo chmod 777 file/directory

and that would have been the end of it.

Microsoft makes their stuff so difficult/complicated and I don't have an hour to spend on trying to sort this stupid permission mojo out on a 5 second task.
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Anonymous

2013-08-29T19:19:24+00:00

Hi ,

I have a kind of similar problem here,

I have a application which saves its log files to multiple folders in E drive on my computer,

I have 4 folders I am able to open log files from 3 of my folders perfectly fine, but one Folder is actually Troubling me a lot.

This was working fine till last week.

Let me explain the issue here,

Out of 4 folders that I have 2 folders are with similar names difference between the 2 folder names is just a space at the end,

The folder that I am having problem is with the one which has the space at the end, Issue is this folder size is 7.5G, I know that there are lot of files in there, but when I open the folder it shows "No items to display"

When I ran a tree size report for this folder I am able to see all the files, but I am unable to access the files through the application in which I ran a report,

and also I am able to access these Files from the application which is creating these files, but I am unable to browse this folder,

These files are not hidden files,

Now!! Let me tell you things that I have tried to Fix it!!

Tried making changes in Folder options-No Go

Tried attrib commands in Command prompt-No Go

Tried Taking ownership of the folder and gave full control for all the accounts- No Go

Tried giving full access to Everyone through Permissions, doesn't help.

Interesting thing is I am able to create a new folder inside the Folder, but post creation it is disappearing immediately, I am able to see the folder created on the tree size report that I am running

and also If I uncheck the read only attribute for this folder and apply the changes to subfolders, it is automatically getting re enabled.

If I get some help to resolve the issue without stopping the application's service, it would be very much appreciated,
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