Every folder marked read-only

[zatch]

All of the sudden, every folder on my XP machine is marked read-only. I have gone into the folder properties and tried to change the properties for the folders, and they appear to change. But, they do not get altered. They stay read-only. Anyone ever seen this? Thanks for the help.

Zatch

 

[linney]

Is it a greyed-out read check box? This is normal for XP and means that some lower sub-folder has the read only attribute set.

If XP wasn't able to write to any of your files the system would be unworkable. I take it that this is not the case.

 

[CoffeeBuzz]

Have you recently used the "Customize This Folder..." wizard?

 

[MartijnM]

Zatch, Linney,

Sorry I'm jumping in so late in the game, but I think there's more to this than meets the eye....

Even folders that don't have subfolders with the read-only attribute on, show up as read-only. According to the information below, something else is the reason behind this. I find it hard to believe, to be honest, but just take a look at the posting I found, and see what you think. I've set out a question to MS about it, so if I get an answer from them, I'll post it here.....

Here's the posting from

http://www.ntfaq.com

:

(

http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=24940)

If the folder is one that you customized using the Customize This Folder Wizard in Windows Explorer or a standard Windows customized folder (e.g., the Fonts folder), you might not be able to remove the read-only attribute or you might receive an error when you try to write a file to the folder. In either scenario, Windows is preventing you from writing to the folder because the OS is using the read-only flag to determine whether the folder is a system folder.

To work around this problem so that you can modify a folder's read-only status, you can tell Windows to use the system flag instead of the read-only flag to identify customized folders. To configure Windows to use the system flag, perform the following steps:

Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer subkey.
Select New, DWORD Value from the Edit menu.
Enter a name of
UseSystemForSystemFolders
and press Enter.
Double-click the new value, set it to 1, and click OK.
Close the registry editor.
Reboot the machine for the changes to take effect.
Martijn Middelplaats
CCDA, CCNA, MCSA, MCSE
martijn@middelplaats.net

 

[MartijnM]

OK. So I should have checked their knowledge base first....so used to not finding the answers there I guess.....

Here it is:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q326549

Guess that's why this topic was dry since aug.

Martijn Middelplaats
CCDA, CCNA, MCSA, MCSE
martijn@middelplaats.net

 

[linney]

Information noted, thanks.