Cannot change READ ONLY file attributes using Administrator Account

Anonymous
2009-10-31T21:41:55+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2010-02-27T20:39:32+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2017-04-06T16:58:33+00:00

    LOL - my thoughts exactly. I think that's why most of the changes for each OS is focused mainly on the GUI. MS has realized their only option is to slap more make-up on their OS pig.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-04-06T16:02:16+00:00

    I get this all the time.

    Microsoft file system design is a big pile of ****.

    If I click the button to say "I don't want this folder to be read only" then "I don't want the folder to be read only"

    What other possible reason would I have for clicking the button?

    For some reason Microsoft has come up with the idea that I am clicking the button to exercise my finger and don't actually want to do anything.

    This worked in DOS 20 years ago but now it does not work in Windows.

    Unfortunately we are stuck with this crap because all the other multi-billion dollar software companies can't make an OS that is better than Windows.

    No doubt the Apple fan club will disagree but you can't even remove the chess program from their bigger steaming pile of crap.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-01-28T00:08:08+00:00

    This didn't change anything, in my case. In fact, unchecking "inherit perms from parent object" and resetting the permissions all had zero effect on removing the read-only permissions on my directory.

    This is an unbelievably stupid design flaw and designating it as "by design" is yet another great example "drinking the MS Kool-Aid" that so exasperates users.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-11-06T19:36:08+00:00

    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.

    I have seen no indication of Microsoft addressing this problem, but haven't looked at it for a month or two.

    The issue arises from third party tools, like mysql, that need to create a temporary or permanent file somewhere, for example in C:\temp.  Their file open operation demands a create/write access for such a file, and with any file marked 'readonly', this is blocked, and that kills any program using mysql.

    In the meantime, this works for me:

    • Disable the readonly attribute for the file or folder your tool intends to use through the file attributes window, as you usually might.
    • but - do NOT close that window.  Just keep it open.
    • If you close the file attributes window, the file/folder seems to retain the ~readonly attribute for a while, but then eventually some other Windows task resets it to readonly.  I have not tried to figure out which task does this, there could be several calling a hidden file attributes function in an effort to 'protect' the file system.

    I speculate that this problem arose from the efforts made to protect Windows 10 against hackers, which of course is laudable.

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