I have been in IT working with Microsoft and related systems for 16 years and I cannot figure out the deal with Windows 7 file permissions. I have already tried all of the "take ownership" craip. Let me get to the nuts and bolts of it. I am trying to edit an .ini file in a sub-directory under the Program Files directory. I am in the local administrators group which I have made them take ownership of the file. I then made sure that group had FC permissions. I then check the "effective permissions" on the file and it shows that I have all rights. But, I cannot edit the file!! I have to log back in with the original administrator that installed all programs and settings. What am I doing wrong? Why is it this complicated for an IT person and makes them feel like a complete idiot? Please help. thanks

Have you tried opening Notepad as administrator? Right click the Notepad icon and select run as administrator. This should let you edit the .ini fiile.

I had not tried that. It works. That is good. But, what do I need to do in order for the permissions to work more traditionally? That is a lot of extra steps to go into Notepad with admin and browse and open the file before editing. Surely I am not the only one having issues with this. Thanks, again and let me know what other options I have.

If all the permissions are set to allow a user or group to modify a file why on earth would the file system not let you modify it? What is the purpose of file permissions if setting them has no effect?

Windows makes it very difficult to modify system files to prevent malware from executing and corrupting the system. Even from within your user group, the program that executes must be run at the correct level.I don't claim to be an expert on the security system but I know a little about how to use it.You can set Notepad to always run as administrator if you would like by right clicking on the icon and select propertiesThen select AdvancedCheck the box marked run as administrator

Thanks. I will keep that in mind. What do you think about temporarily turning off UAC while logged in locally to do maintenance related tasks? Then when finished just turn it back on.I still do not completely understand what is going on the file system. When you try to take ownership (so you can change permissions) and you try to force it to propogate the ownership change down to subfolders and files it always gets to a certain point and then says "access denied". Then you have to go down to that folder or file and take ownership there. Is this issue related to UAC as well? I wonder if we should just temporarily turn off UAC while doing admin related tasks, then turn it back on.

I'm not sure what is going on with setting those permissions.I have read where people found it necessary to turn off UAC for certain tasks, then turn it back on (e.g installing certain programs). I have not yet found the need.