So, I upgraded from Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit... so far I'm impressed with the speed over Vista. However, during the installation/upgrade process, Windows (as usual) 7... destroyed the permissions on folders and completely locked down some folders on the root drive that should have open privileges as well as my data drives. I resolved the problem with privileges and ownership with the following: takeown /F . /R /A /D Y > NUL icacls . /grant USER:(OI)(CI)(F) /L /T /Q That 'should' have taken ownership of ALL files, folders, documents (etc..); However, looking at the ownership it's still set as Administrator...... but now able to access the directories again. But I'm left with this irritating PADLOCK icon on the bottom left of every folder/file/document on the data drives. I've also noticed when creating a NEW FOLDER or NEW (FILE), that file is set automatically to 'READ ONLY' and the 'PADLOCK' appears, but still able to modify the folder. Also, if I completely remove the user privileges and leave the administrator privileges, which the user i'm logged on as is an administrator, I am locked out of the directory... and in order for me to view the contents of the directory I need to add that user back into the privileges. Previously, every single directory/file on the data drives only had 1 permitted user and that was 'Administrators' now... I'm just baffled as to why I can't access them being that this account is an administrator and if I want to read/write/modify (etc..) I need to add this user back into the security profile???!!!

Any suggestions as to why this is occurring? Also, I've noticed when attempting to take ownership or changing permissions through the windows gui, I often find one of the dialog boxes pops up then is forced to the background, instead of the foreground.

So no one has any ideas why this is occurring or how to resolve it?

Ben, my read on your first post is this:"Adminstrator" (a user (hidden account, BTW)) is not the same as "Administrators" (a user group.)If you removed "Adminstrators" from the directory permissions, then, yes, you locked yourself (a member of the Adminstrators group, but not the Adminstrator) out of the directory.If you add the Administrators group back to the ACLs (and give that group Full Control permissions), then you should have full access to the directories in question.HTH,Chris[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

Hi, After testing on several PCs, we can use the following steps to remove the Padlock icon. 1. Right click the folder with the Padlock icon and click Properties. 2. Click Security tab and click "Edit" button. 3. In the popped up box, please click "Add" button and type the name "Authenticated Users", and then click OK. 4. Click OK and exit. Does the Padlock icon disappear now? Thanks, Novak

Exactly, after the upgrade I was unable to gain access since it's going by the SID. So, I neglected to remember I had to change ownership. As far as 'Administrator' a typo.

Not sure what happened here... it's more or less an issue with upgrading from Vista (not sure XP), excluding the fact I locked the drive down. I had to apply (added/removed) permissions to the drive/directory/files/folders several times, nothing would change and the 'Padlock' was still present. Anyway, I was playing around with images on my system, restored an old XP .tib file on the same drive, wiping out 7, updated files on XP created a new tib, restored 7's tib on the same drive (wiping XP)... Now, after restoring 7 from that tib file, I wiped all permissions on these secondary drives, reapplied them as I had before; now the 'Padlock' no longer displays and permissions seem to be fine.

This took care of the problem for me.