Windows Vista Access denied?

I recently purchased this new eMachine with Vista Home Premium installed.

I realize some of the folders for my various settings have changed from Documents and Settings to User\AppData but wonder why on the Documents and Settings folder plus several others I get a message that Access is Denied.

I'm the only one using this PC and am pretty sure that I didn't set any password options.

Any idea why I get this type of message?

Thanks.

 

I had what sounds like the same problem. I did a reinstall of Windows in case something was wrong, but it was still the same.

As far as I can see now, there should not be any actual Documents and Settings folder using Vista. I had shortcut icons (with the small arrow in the corner) to Documents and Settings and several other folders on my C: drive. If I clicked on those shortcuts I got the Access Denied warning. Eventually I decided to send one to the Recycle Bin, instantly, Documents and Settings and all the other shortcut icons disappeared.

If they are shortcut icons, try deleting one. [Edit: these appear to be junction points so read down further]

Matt

 

Matt,

That's EXACTLY what is happening to me.

If Vista doesn't use these folders I wonder why they are there????? Strange.

I'm just glad I'm not the only one noticing this. Perhaps at some point we'll find out why.

Thanks.

 

It's becoming a well published question in Vista. It is actually a feature of the NTFS system, rather than the OS. MAYBE this will help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point

 

Thanks. I'll check it out.

 

Well, I checked out the article you linked me to. But---I have to be honest and tell you that it was way over my head.

Can you possibly explain it to me in terms that I can perhaps understand?

I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

The word "˜My’ has been dropped and locations of XP folders like Documents & Settings and History are no longer in their previous locations. They are displayed when "˜hidden files’ are displayed but they are "˜Junctions‘, i.e. they are there for historical reasons so that old programs that would normally use them are redirected to the new Vista locations. Junctions can be recognised by having a little curly up-arrow like a shortcut and cannot be accessed.

The examples above are now in \users\username\appdata\local\microsoft\windows.

You can see a list of these folders using a command prompt. Go to Start and type cmd and press Enter. Now type: DIR /AL (Capitals for clarity only) and press Enter. The results will be a list of all the Junctions for the user folders. These will show the name of the old XP user folder and the name of the new folder that replaces it in brackets.

 

uhaligani and BurrWalnut, good info, I have done some research/experimentation with Junction Points in Win XP.

So...I "undeleted" the shortcut from my Recycling Bin (the shortcut was My Music), from what I can see, all of the other shortcuts have reappeared. I now have the C:\Documents and Settings (shortcut) folder back, as well as (hundreds?) of shortcut folders throughout my C:\Users folder and most register as "Access is denied ".

I ran DIR /AL...it is exactly the same before and after getting C:\Documents and Settings (shortcut) back again (undeleting the My Music folder).

Do either of you see all these shortcut folders? I don't have access to any other Vista systems.

Matt

 

As burrwalnut stated, they are not, strictly speaking, shortcut arrows. Again, as he says, the folders are there, only for backward compatibility purposes. It was MS's intention to provide, what they hoped, (failed) total comapatibility with older programs. A normal user, who would have accepted all the defaults, instead of customising, would not be able to see the folders. (Windows Explorer/Tools/Folder Options/View and hide protected operating system and hidden files and folders.
They do no harm, except for using a little space. Any use made of them by Vista is discrete and would normally go unnoticed.
If you WISH, and I do not advise it, you can unfreeze them by changing the security options for the directory.

 

BurrWalnut,

I did the command prompt thing and found it very interesting. Doesn't take much to make me happy.

I have 10 Directories with zero bytes.

I am so glad I found out about this quirk so early in this Vista game. I will just leave them alone.

I assume you've been working with Vista a lot longer than the few weeks I have been?

Thanks for all the help.