Hi all, My questions are - How to prohibit download of files from a network drive? But retain the ability to access and work with those files? More detail - The site runs Windows 7 Enterprise. We'll call the network drive and directory Q:\Work for quick reference. I wish to give a set of users the following rights on the Q:\Work directory and on the files stored therein - 1. May not rename, delete, alter access authorities or otherwise change the Q:\Work directory in any way 2. May add, delete, edit and save, rename, etc. files within Q:\Work 3. May not download files from Q:\Work to their own C: drive or to anywhere else I realise that installing a product like SharePoint automatically provides such facilities, but that is not an option that is acceptable to this customer. Your help would be very much appreciated. Many thanks, CGJ

Unfortunately there is no way to do this, without either using Sharepoint, or implementing some kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. I believe there are some DRM components in Windows Server, but not sure how extensive or simple it is to implement. Without either of these, if a user can "read" a file, they can copy it. I would explain to the customer, that Digital Rights Management, is not something that can be "half done," and that if data leakage is completely unacceptable, then the appropriate investments need to be made. I believe the Symantec has a component to their Endpoint Protection suite, which will assist with this. On this basis, I would suggest that most Security suites will have something of the same ilk. Ian

Thank you, Ian, that's very helpful. I did fear that might be the case, but it doesn't hurt to ask. I'll now go and study your suggested Symantec Endpoint Protection facility. Kind regards, CGJ

No problem :) If you do find anything useful in regards to this, please let us know!Ian