Cannot change permissions when selecting multiple folders
I don't why this functionality was removed from XP, but I just recently noticed in Vista and W7 that you can no longer select a few folders and then collectively change the permissions on just those folders. This is a real annoyance because I don't necessarily want to change the permissions on the parent folder and now I have to go folder by folder and change the permissions on each one. I could do it with calcs, but that's just a hassle when you have a wonderful GUI to take care of it for you. I really hope that this was not intentional and a future SP returns this functionality.. Mike
September 10th, 2009 8:01pm

I am one of the many that already complained about this issue. And I dont know why the functionality was removed. But worse yet, it does not affect just folders. Now, is impossible to change permissions from multiple files too. As I already said a lot of times, Windows 7 is very good, but Windows Explorer becoming more and more stupid over time just stops it from beeing great.
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September 10th, 2009 8:19pm

Files, too!??! My god, that's ridiculous! I don't know what they're thinking!!.. grrrrr Up until now I have been using XP for all of my AD administration. I *just* installed Vista for the first time because I needed it for group policy preference management, and overall it seemed fine, but this permission stuff is going to be a major hassle! I don't see why they'd disable functionality like this - it's one of those basic features that should just work! I don't know how many times I have had to select a few folders out of many to adjust some common permissions - but now MS is making the admin work harder to do a simple task... not cool!
September 10th, 2009 9:46pm

Hi, I will report this to our feedback team. Thanks again for testing Windows 7 and letting us know you concern.Nicholas Li - MSFT
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September 23rd, 2009 11:02am

Hey Nicholas, Please, please, please see if this can be fixed. This is going to cause some major headaches when administering our file structure. I never noticed this behavior until I setup both Vista and W7 and realized that they both share the same "functionality", or lack thereof. It really boggles me as to why they'd change that, unless it was an oversight? Thanks! Mike
October 22nd, 2009 3:50am

Hi Mike, Thank you for writing back. I am sorry for the inconvenience. You may try one of the following tools, SubInACL and Icacls. You can create a BAT file or just run the command to process the permissions for multiple folders. I think this should be a workaround. 1. SubInACL (SubInACL.exe) Using the Command Line to Edit Multiple Subdirectory Permissions 2. Icacls Security Watch Hope this helps.Nicholas Li - MSFT
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October 22nd, 2009 11:58am

So now we need to use a command-line utility for something that we used to be able to do in explorer?? Are you really serious? Why are we going backwards from something that used to be achievable in the GUI? I thought the whole point of Windows was providing an easier interface than DOS. Boy this is frustrating!
October 28th, 2009 2:07am

This is frustrating. Especially since we are getting a workaround and not an actual fix.
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March 22nd, 2010 4:03pm

Just wanted to reiterate that a command-line function is not a reasonable workaround for something that should be built into the GUI. This loss of functionality is extremely frustrating! MIke
March 25th, 2010 7:04pm

Is anyone here a developer who knows shell programming and C++? I know how to make the security tab appear for multiple items but I'm not a developer so I can't actually write the code. But I can help anyone willing to fix this issue with guidance on how I think it can be done.Anonymuos
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April 5th, 2011 6:53am

Hello. Please share the information as to how you got the tab to show on multiple files. I just ran across this bug (and yes, it IS a bug) today and need to know what I can do to have a real work around (and a command line utility is NOT a work around for this). Is Microsoft simply going to ignore this and hope it quietly goes away? I've run across that attitude from Microsoft a lot lately (e.g. this issue, viewing of zone levels in Internet Explorer 9...I can go on). They simply say it's either by design or ignore it. Microsoft: When you stop hearing about issues that people have repeatedly complianed about...that doesn't mean the issue is gone. It means we've gotten totally and completely disgusted with you not listening, not understanding, or completely ignoring us.
June 16th, 2011 7:35am

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