Computer question -Windows XP Problem

Yeah...get a Mac. 

I thought we decided in the other thread that those were too greasy? 

OK I'm no computer or network wiz-bang, but here's my situation and you can take it for what it is or ignore it all.  I was strictly a one computer guy, running an old machine (which I still use as the host) and Windows ME.  I recently bought a laptop with WinXP and set up a wireless network.  Before I could access any of the files on the WinME computer from the laptop, I had to go in and right-click on anything I wanted to share and enable file sharing.  Did this to all my photo files, MP3's, word docs, etc.  Now I don't know if you have to do the same before you copy from one machine to another on a network.  Like I said, I'm no genius here, and I'm running some pretty old machinery on my computer downstairs which basically serves as my computrainer / BT machine.

I think it might be a security issue with Xp.  Basicly the file was made read only by another computer at which time it's security key was used.  Now you have the file on a new computer running a different security key and even though you have admin privelages, you don't have those privelages over that file.  Make sense?

try this...hope you like the command line...

Hold down the window key and hit r.  Type in cmd and hit enter.  navagate to the directory where the file is.  The 'cd' command is how you navagate.

cd dirname    will open that directory, you can also type out the entire path like this:

cd dirname/otherdir/anotherdir

cd .. will go backward one directory

you can see where you are at any time by typing 'dir'

get to the root directory (lowest common directory) where the files are and type this:

CACLS /T /G user:F

put your user name in the 'user' spot.

that will set all files in that directory as full control for whatever user you specify.

if you know unix, dir = ls, cd = cd, and CACLS = CHMOD

As a supporter of Bill, I'm always up for troubleshooting his toys...

Try creating a random folder 'A' on your new computer, open up the folder 'B' on the old computer, select all and copy and paste all files from folder 'B' on the old computer, into the random folder 'A' on the new computer. 

After that, are the folders and files on new computer read only?  They should not be.  Everything should be fine at this point.  Let me know what happens if you do these things (if nothing in the previous posts worked).

I think Vortmax is correct. It is a security/permission issue. It sounds like he has successfully used the solution he has provided.

You may also want to make sure that you are an Administrator. I think this issue has came up after one of the security patches. Have you taken a ride into the MS KB? I'll take a look and share if I find anything.

Found this stuff on KB. Good luck.

http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?catalog=LCID%3D1033&spid=1173&mode=r&cat=false&query=read+only+files&srch=sup&x=2&y=10

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326549/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812937/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328170/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308418/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308419/en-us

good links.

and windows doesn't really suck.  I have never run into a problem with windows that cannot be fixed through the command line.  It's just that Windows is still a command line based OS that has a great GUI, and had thus lost it's connection to the command line.  If something can't be fixed with a handy little wizzard or by clicking on bright colorfull icons, then the computer is "broken."  In many ways, it's like the little Puppy who lost his way.

Learn the command line and you will never be lost.  Windows also gets a bad rap because it is so widely used and touted as "user friendly."  So you get a lot of incompetent boobs (not naming names) that don't have the technical skill to properly work a taster oven think they can master Windows.  They naturally break it and complain that "window's sucks."  Macs just don't have the client base for this to happen quite yet.

Agreed. I am not all that good at the command line, but the articles are pretty easy to follow. It is funny that we sometimes have a tendency to hate on "the man" or the winner.

I have a friend that is a Mac Addict. His Mac skills landed him a job at MS and he now loves both for what they are. He really loves the $$$$$ he is able to earn and the opportunities it has afforded him. For most of us, Mac is too expensive and the open systems are too difficult and require too much time to master. How many folks start out using a Mac or Unix OS? Sounds like there is a joke for this.

Actually, in this case Windows is bad. It's marketed and sold in Circuit City, etc. as an OS for home consumers, not an engineering tool. You don't need to know how to diagnose problems with and adjust the fuel injection on your car just to get it to run, and Kim shouldn't be going through what she is just to copy some files.

The average consumer should have no reason to go to the command line just to do things like basic file management. That's like saying everyone should educate themselves on how to frame a house if they want to hang a picture on a wall.

well but she is also doing slightly more complicated stuff then the average home user would be doing.  She's setting up network shares with implied permissions. 

Part of the problem is that everybody complains about secuirty in windows, so they make it secure.  Then people want easy sharing, so they try and make it easy to share files.  High security and easy file sharing don't go together hand in hand

bad form dude.  Don't give macintosh the credit for that command.  It was a linux command LONG before apple adopted the architecture.  And the command I listed does the EXACT same thing under windows.  Just a different set of letters to type.