Vista - NTFS Permissions behaviour during a file move (Cut & Paste) - Inherits instead of retains permissions.
On Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP & Windows 2003, when you MOVE (Cut & Paste) a file on an NTFS partition to a new parent folder on the SAME NTFS partition, that file with RETAIN the permissions inherited by it from it's previous parent. It was my understanding that because no actual bits were moved, just the pointers to them, you were not creating a "new" object, therefor no inheritance from it's new parent. This does not appear to be the behavior on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008. If you MOVE (Cut & Paste) a file on an NTFS partition to a new parent folder on the SAME NTFS partition, it will INHERIT the permissions of the new parent. Go ahead and try it on an XP machine and then a Vista machine, you'll see what I mean. Create Folder1 & Folder2 on same volume. Set Group1 to "Read" on Folder1 and Group1 to "Write" on Folder2. In Folder1, create Doc1.txt and Doc2.txt. Both will inherit "Read" for Group1 from the parent folder. Now copy and paste Doc1.txt to Folder2, and Cut and Paste (move) Doc2.txt to Folder2. On an XP Machine, Doc1.txt will now have Group1-Write, inherited from the new parent, and Doc2.txt will have Group1-Read; it retains permission. On Vista BOTH Doc1.txt and Doc2.txt will now have Group1-Write, inheriting from the new parent. While the merits of this are arguable (I think it makes permissions management clearer in the end-run), I'm having trouble with the fact that I've not seen this change documented anywhere. I've been searching TechNet, and the best I can come up with is this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949608 This article describes "Changes to the default NTFS DACL settings in Windows Vista", but only with respect to " enabling data sharing and collaboration in data directories that are outside protected directories". It does not specifically mention the behavior I've described. Can anyone out there illuminate on this for me? Thanks, Bob
September 11th, 2009 10:58am

Did you ever get any additional info on this? It seems that in Windows 7, behavior has reverted to what it was pre-Vista. The Vista behavior is causing some frustrating issues for us in some cases. Apologies for thread necromancy.
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October 13th, 2010 8:30am

I had similar issues to you guys and found this blog post about it http://think-like-a-computer.com/2011/07/24/moving-files-on-the-same-ntfs-volume-does-inherit-permissions/
July 24th, 2011 10:32am

This is for the happyness of the poeple!! "You can modify how Windows Explorer handles permissions when objects are moved in the same NTFS volume. As mentioned, when an object is moved within the same volume, the object preserves its permissions by default. However, if you want to modify this behavior so that the object inherits the permissions from the parent folder, modify the registry as follows" In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer create a DWORD called MoveSecurityAttributes and set it to 0 it´s works!!! Thanks El Vinso de la gente (From Buenos Aires, Argentina)
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September 14th, 2011 9:21am

In order to use MoveSecurityAttributes as you were able in Windows XP/Windows Server 2003, you will need to install the following hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2617058 Hope this helps! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
July 11th, 2012 12:07pm

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