Windows security tab missing when selecting more than one file or folder!!!
Hi all,I currently have Windows 7 Ultimate installed and it seems like the same problem that was in windows vista is now included in windows 7 as well. When i select multiple folders or files and right hand click, select properties, the security tab is missing. This just makes things more difficult for admins. Does anyone know a fix???I have logged a priority call with Microsoft so hopefully i might get something back...Matt Smith
October 21st, 2009 11:00am

Since there were customers voices before, we have reported it to proper department and they will pay attention on it.Arthur Xie - MSFT
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October 25th, 2009 11:41pm

Ok, sure, design changes are needed and so on. And personally i have nothing against using console tools. BUT. Personally, i often have to change security settings for lots of seemingly random files. And new design is ____ for doing such task. So. How can i revert W7 to old behavior? PS. This is my "customer's voice", btw. And sure lots of advanced users are with me.
October 30th, 2009 5:53pm

I've logged a call with the Microsoft Technical Support Incident line (using one of the two callsI get a year). Still waiting on a valid response. I had one reply which they stated the change was made by design and the technical specialst suggested that i actually set permissions on multiple files individually!!! I statedIoften make changes to folders with over 2000 files in.I said i wasn't happy with that response and could microsoft create a admin tool that would give admins back the secuity tab. If not could they provide the Microsoft recommended way of changing permissions on multiple folder/files. Still waiting on a response... Will keep you all postedMattMatt Smith
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October 31st, 2009 5:07pm

It's now gone to the Design change stage so we'll see what happens...Hi Matt, This e-mail is in regards to Security Tab missing while selecting multiple files issue occurring on a Windows 7 based machine. Just wanted to inform you that we are still waiting for the Design Change Request approval. In case if there is any query, please let me know via phone or email. Regards, M SharmaMatt Smith
November 25th, 2009 9:28am

Hey,I've been using Windows Server for more than 10 years, MS decided to change this - why? I can understand this functionality being removed if a non administrator was logged on but I'm the Administrator and I'm modifying folder and file permissions on the data drive so bring this functionality to set permissions on multiple folder or files back or give us another downloadable administrators explorer that can do it. I have no issue with cli but come on this is basic administrator functionality.
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November 29th, 2009 9:10am

What ____! MS is nowcalling this a design change. Well we want the tab back. When I emailed Steven Sinofsky, he said it was done during Vista timeframe and now no one is bothered about fixng it any more. Is it to encourage usto use icacls more?Anonymuos
December 13th, 2009 11:42am

Well, then it's a very bad design change. Maybe this is better for the average Windows users, but as a more advanced user I would certainly like the old behaviour back. Security administration has gotten more complicated now...Why not simple include an extra option to switch this behaviour on/off?
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December 19th, 2009 5:21pm

Find your Windows 7 Administrative Handbook, manual, etc..Read up on "Inherited file permissions"It doesn't do it all perfectly, but it gives you some of the options you want. However, if you create a proper file structure built on this security, then you will find it works well up to your standards.
December 21st, 2009 11:30am

If this doesn't meet your needs. You can create a script to change the files as you need, and then create a data list for every different combination of preferences you want to set up.
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December 21st, 2009 11:33am

Back in the NT Server days, we had a RSHXMenu shell extensions that directly allowed setting permissions, ownership and audit permissions using GUI from the context menu. It worked till XP but broke on Vista. And now the out-of-the-box GUI also disappear when multiple files are selected. Someone needs to write a shell extension to fix this. MS simply won't be fixing it.
December 22nd, 2009 9:35am

Someone pls write a property shell extension using the free sample code at:http://www.codeproject.com/KB/winsdk/accessctrl4.aspx
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December 22nd, 2009 4:13pm

One more vote for fixing this. I have a over 10,000 folders I need to change the permission on right now. In XP I could do this in under a minute. I understand I can use a command line tool, but give me a break.
December 29th, 2009 8:33am

Has anybody heard anything about this? It's a Huge P.I.A. to have to change permissions on individual folders when I need to be able to do it on dozens at a time, daily! Seriously, this is ridiculous. It's obvious that this ability is needed, wanted, and was available previously in XP, so Bring It Back! This is not something that can be solved with inherited permissions or command line utilities. It needs to be available in the Context menu like it was in XP.
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October 14th, 2010 2:16pm

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
March 31st, 2011 9:11am

This has got to be an oversight by the development team. There is no way any developer in their right mind would consciously remove this functionality...if they had ever managed permissions on a file server. Speaking as a Network/Server Admin, removal of this this functionality is killing me. I am settng permissions on multiple folders many times a day. Now I have to remote desktop into a WinXP PC to do it. There are several threads going on this subject. Here's another, http://tinyurl.com/3upqgxe TekMason
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April 18th, 2011 3:58pm

Well, they changed it back in Vista, if you want to know, and in Win7 it's still missing and I haven't tried SP1 yet, but it didn't come back with Vista's SP1 or SP2 so I assume it's changed for good. And it's a ___ shame. I read on some blog a history about this change and it surely was a security concern (I think the author mentioned something about problems with consistency if operation of changing permission on thousands of elements was cancelled - but I didn't save that blog and can't find it now), but still it hurts a lot. I would agree to remove it on Win7 HB/HP but Prof and Enterprise version could have it enabled for admins, couldn't it? Of course Raymond Chen (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/) would argue, I assume, in favour of the change, but still we have no other options than command line tool. It's seems Windows isn't a going for a full GUI system path any longer. I wonder what happend so that this "decision" was approved? Somebody at IBM was changing millions of folders' persmissions and then it blew so they decided to remove it? I don't argue about necessity of this change. I would just like to now the reasoning behind it. And be able to understand that reasoning.
May 11th, 2011 10:59am

There was probably little outcry when this was new because it was on a desktop OS that gained very little traction in business. But bringing this to Server 2008 and Windows 7 was a serious error in judgement. The previous design was potentially dangerous to amateurs, but far more powerful for competant administrators. The ability to highlight multiple folders and check whether or not they have the same or divergent security was the work of seconds - now it can't be done quickly or without command line expertice (which none of my administrators have or needed to have before this change). The answer of course is to keep a Server 2003 or XP box around and manage security from there, but the idea that I need an old version of the operating system to effectively manage current versions seems absurd - just not quite as absurd as Microsoft telling us that routine Windows system management needs to be handled outside the GUI.
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June 28th, 2011 10:14am

Doesn't look like it will be fixed in Windows 8 either. So now three revisions of an OS go without a GUI to do something that could be done in NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 and we are forced to use the command line at a time when there has never been a greater need to set permissions on multiple files due to the locked down security model of Windows 7/8.
February 8th, 2012 1:11pm

Multiple select option for security by design change or Microsoft forgotten this to include? For god sake! this make my job worse!
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May 22nd, 2012 5:15am

Doesn't look like it will be fixed in Windows 8 either. So now three revisions of an OS go without a GUI to do something that could be done in NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 and we are forced to use the command line at a time when there has never been a greater need to set permissions on multiple files due to the locked down security model of Windows 7/8. Microsoft will not border to fixing what mistake they had done in past. They always said "It's by design and security purpose" to me is crap.
May 27th, 2012 11:00pm

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