(Approx. 594 words)

ru XPerienced?
By Lee Reynolds, a Member of the Boca Raton Computer Society, Inc., FL
www.brcs.org
leetutor(at)earthlink.net

Obtained from APCUG with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.

Yes, the title of the column is a play on the old song by Jimi Hendrix. But in this case, what is being asked is this: do you know everything you need or want to know about Windows XP?

If not, then join me in learning all about it together... 

OWNERSHIP AND RESTRICTIONS
If you have ever had a corrupted user profile and then had to create a new account, when you tried to access the folders or files used by the old account in order to transfer
them to the new one, you might have encountered a problem: Windows won't let you. Or, you might have had to reinstall XP over itself and establish new accounts. Even if all names, passwords, and settings are identical to the previous ones, you will not be able to access the old ones because each account is given a new SID (Security ID) and Windows compares the SIDs and not the account names.

If you take ownership of the old folders or files, as explained in the following article from the Microsoft Knowledge Base, you should be able to access them:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
You must be logged on as an Administrator to take ownership. If you're running Windows XP Home Edition, you must first start in Safe Mode and log in as an Administrator. Otherwise, you won't be able to access the Security tab of a file or folder's Property page. Also Simple File Sharing must be disabled. (Other articles in this series detail how to boot to Safe Mode and disable Simple File Sharing.)

In order to take ownership of a folder, start up My Computer or Windows Explorer, right 
click the folder, and then choose Properties from the Context Menu that scrolls out.

Click the Security tab of the Property page that opens, and click OK on any Security message that appears. 

Click the Advanced button, then click the Owner tab. 

In the Name list, click whatever is appropriate to the case: your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or the Administrators group.

If you want to take ownership of the folder, click to put a check mark next to Replace owner on subcontainers and objects.

Click OK. A message appears:

You do not have permission to read the contents of directory <folder name>. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?

All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes. 

Click Yes.Then click OK and reapply any permissions or security settings you want for the folder and its contents.

The method for taking ownership of a file is quite similar to the case for a folder. Again you must be logged on as an Administrator. 

Right click the file you want to take ownership of, and click Properties from the Context Menu that scrolls out. Click the Security tab, click OK on any Security message
that appears, click the Advanced button, and then click the Owner tab. 

In the Name list click the appropriate item (as above, for folders.) 

Now you can reapply any permissions and security settings you want to the file.

This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).