Win Vista problem - can't remove Read Only on folders

[Cliffh]

Running Vista Home Basic SP2.

I've been having a problem trying to update McAfee AV.  So I attempted to download & run their Virtual Technician (program to inspect & attempt repairs of McAfee); it fails to install saying it doesn't have permission to create a sub-directory in the McAfee directory.  Checking it out I found that the McAfee directory & sub-directories are marked as Read Only.  The files themselves do not indicate they're Read Only.

I've logged in as the User with Admin permissions in both normal & safe modes and attempted to change the properties, notice I said "attempted".  It looks as if the changes are made - it asks if I want to apply to all files and sub-directories and exits without errors.  But checking the attributes immediately after making the changes shows the Read Only attribute has not been removed.

If I go to the Security tab and attempt to add all permissions for Creator Owner, I get an error that the permissions can't be changed for any of the files or directories.  This happens in both Normal & Safe modes.  All Group & Users, except Creator Owner, (System, Administrators, Users, TrustedInstaller) have all permissions; there were no errors when adding additional permissions to any of them.

In Safe Mode I was able to create a new sub-directory in the McAfee directory, can't create or rename that same directory in Normal mode - don't have permission error message.  I am able to create, rename & delete sub-directories in at least a couple other directories in Normal mode.

Scans with McAfee, Spybot & Ad-Aware haven't found anything.

I've checked quite a few other directories in the Program Files & Root directory, seems as if they're all marked Read Only. I can change the attributes and it seems to work, but immediately re-checking shows they're still Read Only.

The laptop recently came back from AOL's extended warranty repair service; this problem was not present prior to the repairs to the modem & DVD drive.  Trying to talk with the repair folks I've been transferred & disconnected more than 8 times today, I'll try again tomorrow.  In the mean time - any suggestions?

[lee n. field]

Turn User Account Control off, and try again.

I've logged in as the User with Admin permissions in both normal & safe modes and attempted to change the properties, notice I said "attempted".

Still doesn't mean you necessarily have the godlike root powers you think you do.  Right click the executable, click "run as administrator".

[GigaBuist]

The system might have it marked as a 'system' folder -- IIRC the 'read only' attribute doesn't apply to folders.

From a command line:

attrib -s "c:\program files\whatever"

... that might fix it up.

I've seen this before but it was years ago.  Not fun.

[AZRedhawk44]

You may have to "take ownership" of the folder before being allowed to actually change any permissions.

Right click on the  folder, go to properties.  Click the Security tab.  Click Advanced.  Click on the owner tab.  Click Edit.  Click Other users or groups.  Find your username, or the administrators group of the computer, or whatever is appropriate.  Also hit the checkbox for replace owner on subcontainers and objects.  Click OK to everything to close them.  Then retry.

[Cliffh]

The system might have it marked as a 'system' folder -- IIRC the 'read only' attribute doesn't apply to folders.

From a command line:

attrib -s "c:\program files\whatever"

... that might fix it up.

I've seen this before but it was years ago.  Not fun.

From the McAfee Properties:

Attributes:  light gray check  Read-only (Only applies to files in folder)

So Vista's saying it's only the files that are affected.  Still can't make a new sub-directory in the \McAfee directory in normal mode, I can create one in the \Temp directory (which is showing the same attributes as \McAfee).

Crap.  Tried using attrib -s "c:\program files\mcafee" attrib -s "c:\progra~1\mcafee" and  attrib -s c:\progra~1\mcafee it's still showing the Read Only attribute.

I chose the McAfee directory for this attempt just 'cause it was the first one I noticed with this problem.  Every directory I've checked is indicating the same attributes.

I made a clone of the drive before sending it in for repair.  I'm pretty sure this isn't caused by a virus (more of a strong hope).  If it isn't, and fixing this attribute problem is too much of a hassle, I may just clone it back, then restore the backups of what's been done since it's return.

Double crap.  Just tried  AZRedhawk44's suggestion and got an error:

An error occurred while applying security information to:

C:\Program Files\McAfee\Gkp\content.bin

Access is denied.

Clicking continue returns the same error for every file in \Gkp.  \Gkp is the first sub-directory under \McAfee, didn't go far enough to see if the other sub-directories had the same problem.

Restoring the clone is starting to look better.  I get nervous cloning, been known to get things backwards sometimes.

ETA:  User Account Control is off, it was one of the first changes I made to this system.

[AZRedhawk44]

Check for some sort of Windows Service that is running and using this file.

Run services.msc and check the list of services for anything McAffee related.

Also, run msconfig and look in there.  You may have to reboot to commit the changes.

Then go and re-apply the security ownership like I described.

[Cliffh]

I'll give that a shot tomorrow.

FYI, I tried changing ownership of C:\Temp, a dir I created back in '07. Vista allowed me to change ownership from \Cliff\Administrator to \Cliff\Cliff.  But I still couldn't change the read only attrib with either owner.  It acted like it was changing the attrib, but it didn't take.

[Firethorn]

I'll give that a shot tomorrow.

FYI, I tried changing ownership of C:\Temp, a dir I created back in '07. Vista allowed me to change ownership from \Cliff\Administrator to \Cliff\Cliff.  But I still couldn't change the read only attrib with either owner.  It acted like it was changing the attrib, but it didn't take.

Sounds like Gigabuist's idea might be part of the problem.  System files will show up as read only, but a normal attribute change won't fix it.

[Cliffh]

What may have been done and/or happened to cause Vista to make this sort of change to seemingly *all* of the directories on the drive?  Might the same thing happen if I restore this drive from the clone?

I've seen similar when copying files from a CD/DVD to the hard drive, they have sometimes been marked as read-only after the copy.  Not exactly the same symptoms, but close.

I just tried using attrib -s -r c:\temp\*.* /s /d at a command prompt from the root with no joy.  Still showing the same properties as before: Read only (Only applies to files in folder).

[lee n. field]

You may have to "take ownership" of the folder before being allowed to actually change any permissions.

Right click on the  folder, go to properties.  Click the Security tab.  Click Advanced.  Click on the owner tab.  Click Edit.  Click Other users or groups.  Find your username, or the administrators group of the computer, or whatever is appropriate.  Also hit the checkbox for replace owner on subcontainers and objects.  Click OK to everything to close them.  Then retry.

I'm not sure he can do that in that way, if it's a Home version.

[Cliffh]

I'm not sure he can do that in that way, if it's a Home version.

Didn't seem to work this morning, received the same errors as last night:  An error occurred while applying security information to:

C:\Program Files\McAfee\Gkp\content.bin

Access is denied.

Clicking Continue (instead of Cancel) works it's way through every file in all sub-dir's of \McAfee, with the same message.

Some dir's will allow me to change ownership with no errors, some won't.

[AZRedhawk44]

Didn't seem to work this morning, received the same errors as last night:  An error occurred while applying security information to:

C:\Program Files\McAfee\Gkp\content.bin

Access is denied.

Clicking Continue (instead of Cancel) works it's way through every file in all sub-dir's of \McAfee, with the same message.

Some dir's will allow me to change ownership with no errors, some won't.

Holy water and a rosary Gasoline and detcord.

[Cliffh]

Spent over a 1/2 hour on hold waiting for AOL's tech support.  They were able to come up with a cause and solution within 15 minutes.

Seems as if the stupid goat-****ing, snake-****ing, rat-****ing, ****** in the *** by a donkey, camel kissing scumbags who worked on this laptop reinstalled the OS over top of the existing OS, thereby screwing up the permissions on the entire drive.  Their solution is to send it back to the warranty folks and have them restore it to the original factory configuration.

Fortunately, I made the clone prior to sending it in.  Since this wasn't caused by a virus, just stupidity, I feel better about attaching the cloned drive.  Again fortunately, I haven't done much since it came back & most of what was done has been backed up on removable media - what wasn't backed up is just some minor tweaking of email folders.

Back-ups are your friend.

Thanks for all your help.

[lee n. field]

Spent over a 1/2 hour on hold waiting for AOL's tech support.  They were able to come up with a cause and solution within 15 minutes.

Seems as if the stupid goat-****ing, snake-****ing, rat-****ing, ****** in the *** by a donkey, camel kissing scumbags who worked on this laptop reinstalled the OS over top of the existing OS, thereby screwing up the permissions on the entire drive.  Their solution is to send it back to the warranty folks and have them restore it to the original factory configuration.

Fortunately, I made the clone prior to sending it in.  Since this wasn't caused by a virus, just stupidity, I feel better about attaching the cloned drive.  Again fortunately, I haven't done much since it came back & most of what was done has been backed up on removable media - what wasn't backed up is just some minor tweaking of email folders.

Back-ups are your friend.

Thanks for all your help.

is that even possible with Vista?  I know with Win7, if you reinstall over an existing installation, all that stuff will get bundled up into a Windows.old directory, for you to copy back what you need to manually.

There's a way to do a "repair install", that I've done a few times.  I've never had it screw up permissions or ownership because it's refreshing an existing installation.

Backup, wipe, reinstall from scratch and begin the long slog though Vista updates.

[Cliffh]

That's what tech support said the repair folks did.  He supposedly checked the records on what had been done.  But.  Now I'm not so sure. 

Restored the clone - same problem.

Created new user with Admin privileges - same problem.

Dear God, I do not want to nuke this drive and start over using a dial-up connection.   

This doesn't seem to be an unknown problem.  I'm doing some research, nothing showing any promise yet.

[GigaBuist]

Not adding anything to the discussion that hasn't already been mentioned, but I ran into something similar today, as "luck" would have it.

My c:\cygwin directory at work wouldn't let me read or write from it (even though I'm an Admin) so I just renamed it and installed Cygwin again.  Might as well update because it was a 2.5 year old install.

Ended up having to take permission of the old directory, making sure to apply it to all subdirectories, and giving myself full control over them after that in order to read my old files.  My situation was complicated by transferring the desktop between domains, and my current user wasn't considered an owner (even though it's a freaking Admin) of that folder.  Go figure.

I hate windows file security so bad.  I spent an hour or so on that mess.

[lee n. field]

That's what tech support said the repair folks did.  He supposedly checked the records on what had been done.  But.  Now I'm not so sure.  

Restored the clone - same problem.

Created new user with Admin privileges - same problem.

Dear God, I do not want to nuke this drive and start over using a dial-up connection.  

This doesn't seem to be an unknown problem.  I'm doing some research, nothing showing any promise yet.

You're on dialup?  This whole exercise started about an AV update.  AV updates are so big anymore that it's difficult (I would say impossible, certainly impractical) to keep up using a dialup connection.

[Cliffh]

Yep, still on dial-up here.  Problems getting satellite, need an 80' tower for wireless, cable & DSL probably won't happen here in my lifetime.

The AV update just brought the problem to the fore-front, when it couldn't create a file to install the update.

I ran across an auto-fix from MS for WinUpdate problems, it fixes incorrectly assigned permissions.  Ran it and it seems to have fixed the problem, at least I can now create a sub-dir in the \McAfee directory.  Still haven't run the AV or MS updates, those will be done later tonight.  But it's looking better.

ETA:  The AV update just brought the problem to the fore-front, when it couldn't create a file to install the update.

At least I believe that was happening.  The AV auto-fix program was unable to create a sub-dir, which is what clued me in to the problem.

[fifth_column]

Please excuse me if this has already been suggested:


DETCORD

[Cliffh]

If things had continued as they were going, detcord, gasoline, black powder (for flash & smoke) and a few other ingredients were on the to-do list.

As it is, I'm at the library now, downloading updates for Flash, Quick Time, McAfee & Windows, all of which are updating just fine.

The Windows Update auto-fix must have done the job.