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434 posts

Ultimate Geek


Topic # 113757 27-Jan-2013 10:05 Send private message

I have a hard drive from my previous computer which I've installed in my new setup, holding my user folders.  Looking over the security settings for the folders on the hard drive, it looks like the ownership/permission settings aren't quite right, but I'm not sure what they should be.  The Administrators group "owns" The Users folder, the Users/Lizard folder, and the Users/Lizard/Documents folder, but below that the owner is a long list of numbers rather than a specific user.  Does this sound right?  Or should the "owner" for all folders be the administrators group?

Regarding permissions, the Users folder gives permission to only the following groups - Authenticated Users, System, Administrators, and Users.  All of these groups have full permissions, except for Users which only has Read/Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read access.  This is the same for Users/Lizard folder.  But Users/Lizard/Documents gives permissions to the following groups - System, Administrators, Home Users, and Lizard (a user rather than a group).  System, Administrators and Lizard have full permissions, but Home Users only has read/execute, list folder contents, and read access.  To complicate things, Users/Lizard/Music only gives permissions to these groups - System, Administrators, and Home Users, with all having full permissions except for Home Users which only has read/execute, list folder contents, and read access.  But curiously, Lizard as a user is not listed in the permissions list.  I was planning to give my user full permissions on each folder.  Is there a simple way to do this across the entire User folder?  And is there anything I need to beware of before changing the user permissions?

Apologies if this sounds confused, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around ownership/permission settings, and I'm hesitant to do anything that might break things...

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gzt

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  Reply # 751443 27-Jan-2013 11:36 Send private message

These user folders were from your old system? or created entirely using the new system?



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Ultimate Geek


  Reply # 751446 27-Jan-2013 11:42 Send private message

From the old system

gzt

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  Reply # 751454 27-Jan-2013 12:21 Send private message

Are you using /Users on this drive to store user profiles for the new system or is it just archived data from the old system?

gzt

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  Reply # 751456 27-Jan-2013 12:29 Send private message

Btw, the long list of numbers (instead of user names) are just SIDs from your previous computer. A SID identifies a user. Your new computer does not have any users with matching SIDs so it just displays the numbers. If you will never use the previous machine again you can remove these if you want to.



434 posts

Ultimate Geek


  Reply # 751457 27-Jan-2013 12:32 Send private message

Originally I had planned to migrate the user profile over the old drive (u:\users) but the method I found online to do that (editing the registry) didn't work so well, and it killed most of the metro apps. So now it's just acting as a "dumb" drive, storing the data and linked to the relevant Libraries. So there's a C:\Users\Lizard folder, and a U:\Users\Lizard folder, with nothing in the C:\Users\Lizard\Documents folder (etc), with all the old files stored in U:\Users\Lizard\Documents and linked to the Documents Library (with U:\Users\Lizard\Documents set as the default save location).

gzt

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  Reply # 751462 27-Jan-2013 13:06 Send private message

A source of issues starting Metro apps is neglecting to grant the "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" user required permissions on the new /users location.

But back to the current topic. Administrator can take ownership at any time. Ownership is required to assign permissions. Nothing really wrong with granting Lizard full control and ownership over the old users directory if that is what you want Lizard to have. You may wish to take 'users' off if 'users' does not need access.



434 posts

Ultimate Geek


  Reply # 751474 27-Jan-2013 13:29 Send private message

Thanks for the tip regarding the Metro Apps. I might try fully migrating the user profile at a later date, and will keep that in mind.

If I understand correctly, the Administrators group should have ownership at the higher levels of the folder, but it won't affect the ownership of the lower levels unless inheritance is enabled. At the u:\users and u:\users\lizard levels, it looks like inheritance is disabled, but on the levels below that it is enabled. So, if I leave the inheritance settings unchanged, and the Administrators groups has ownership of the Users and Users\Lizard levels, who should have ownership of the lower levels - Adminstrators group, or the user (i.e. Lizard)?

re: granting full control to Lizard for the U:\Users folder - I've deliberately removed Administrator rights from the Lizard profile, as a guard against hacking/damaging the system. Anytime I need to install a program, I just put in the password for the Administrator account. If I grant Lizard full access to the U:\Users folder, presumably the Lizard account is still a standard account rather than an Administrator account. But does it undo any of the effectiveness of making it a non-Administrator account?

Finally, re: removing the Users groups from the permissions - I'm guessing that any other accounts which are created are automatically part of the Users group, and that they would have permissions according to that group. So if I added a new, standard account, it would be part of the Users group, but if I removed the Users group permissions for U:\Users, then that new account would have no permissions to that folder? Is that correct? But that an Administrator account would be part of the Administrators group, and so would have permissions for that group and presumably would still retain access?

gzt

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  Reply # 751584 27-Jan-2013 18:51 Send private message

P2, I would expect the user (Lizard) to have ownership of Lizards files. I am not running windows or 8 so I suggest you verify this by creating a new user account, then logging in as that user. Inspect the permissions on the new profile.

P3, A user profile (directories and files) and a user account are two very different things. Granting a user account additional rights on a file or directory does not change group membership or any attributes of the account at all.

P4, That is all correct + remember if you remove administrator access the administrator can take ownership at any time needed.

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