Windows 7 to XP file sharing: some files are accessible in a folder,some are not

[Yousuf Khan]

I have a Windows 7 desktop that's sharing several folders out to other
computers, mainly running XP. That's pretty typical, and I'm not having
any problem setting this up, it's already setup and working fine.

However, recently I added a new folder share from the Windows 7
computer. What I'm finding is that some of the files in the folder are
accessible, and some are not. It's unusual because typically I see
either that the whole folder is accessible, or it is not, not just some
things inside it. I'd say half are accessible, and half are not.

When trying to access some files, I get the message: "file not
accessible". Yet, I can see all of these files when viewing the
directory listing in Explorer. What could be causing this?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

I have a Windows 7 desktop that's sharing several folders out to
other computers, mainly running XP. That's pretty typical, and I'm
not having any problem setting this up, it's already setup and
working fine.

However, recently I added a new folder share from the Windows 7
computer. What I'm finding is that some of the files in the folder
are accessible, and some are not. It's unusual because typically I
see either that the whole folder is accessible, or it is not, not
just some things inside it. I'd say half are accessible, and half
are not.

When trying to access some files, I get the message: "file not
accessible". Yet, I can see all of these files when viewing the
directory listing in Explorer. What could be causing this?

Since it is some files and not others, I'd check security permissions
on the files themselves. If that's not it, it might be helpful to
know what files are and are not accessible.

 

[Rob]

I have a Windows 7 desktop that's sharing several folders out to other computers, mainly running XP. That's pretty typical, and I'm not having any problem setting this up, it's already setup and working fine.

However, recently I added a new folder share from the Windows 7 computer. What I'm finding is that some of the files in the folder are accessible, and some are not. It's unusual because typically I see either that the whole folder is accessible, or it is not, not just some things inside it. I'd say half are accessible, and half are not.

When trying to access some files, I get the message: "file not accessible". Yet, I can see all of these files when viewing the directory listing in Explorer. What could be causing this?

Yousuf Khan

What is often a simple quick fix for this is to unshare the folder and then share it again.
HTH

 

[Yousuf Khan]

What is often a simple quick fix for this is to unshare the folder and then share it again.
HTH

Okay, just tried that, and it did work -- somewhat. The files that were
previously giving trouble are no longer giving trouble, but new files
that are put into this directory seem to give the trouble still. This
particular directory is a very dynamic directory, it's used mainly to
hold recently downloaded files and share them out to other computers in
the house. I'm finding that newer files give the issue. Am I supposed to
unshare the folder everytime there's a new file downloaded, and reshare it?

There's no other Windows 7 computers in the house to test this out on,
apart from the main desktop. When I attempt to mount this computer's own
filesystem as a network share, it works fine, but that's obvious. I
don't know if it's working fine because it's sharing to Windows 7 or if
it's running fine because the network share is actually a local
filesystem. I can only test remotely to an XP computer.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Patok]

Okay, just tried that, and it did work -- somewhat. The files that were
previously giving trouble are no longer giving trouble, but new files
that are put into this directory seem to give the trouble still. This
particular directory is a very dynamic directory, it's used mainly to
hold recently downloaded files and share them out to other computers in
the house. I'm finding that newer files give the issue. Am I supposed to
unshare the folder everytime there's a new file downloaded, and reshare it?

Could it be the security setting on XP about opening "unsafe" i.e.
downloaded files? When you look at the file properties when they are not
accessible, does it say that "This file came from another computer... bla bla"?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Could it be the security setting on XP about opening "unsafe" i.e.
downloaded files? When you look at the file properties when they are not
accessible, does it say that "This file came from another computer...
bla bla"?

No, these aren't executables, they're mainly data files, like vids,
music, etc. The message that comes back is simply "file not found",
despite it being clearly visible in the directory.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Could it be the security setting on XP about opening "unsafe" i.e.
downloaded files? When you look at the file properties when they are not
accessible, does it say that "This file came from another computer...
bla bla"?

Since I wrote my last message to you, I found the following information
that looks promising. It's talking about Vista, but it applies to Win7
as well, and apparently even applies to WinXP SP2 and above.

Vista Blocked File Protection Control
http://www.petri.co.il/unblock-files-windows-vista.htm

Apparently Windows 7 maintains zone information in downloaded files, and
automatically "blocks" them. I don't know if this is what's been causing
my wierd issues here, but I'll disable the entire policy, and see what
happens.

Yousuf Khan

 

[John Wunderlich]

Okay, just tried that, and it did work -- somewhat. The files that
were previously giving trouble are no longer giving trouble, but
new files that are put into this directory seem to give the
trouble still. This particular directory is a very dynamic
directory, it's used mainly to hold recently downloaded files and
share them out to other computers in the house. I'm finding that
newer files give the issue. Am I supposed to unshare the folder
everytime there's a new file downloaded, and reshare it?

There's no other Windows 7 computers in the house to test this out
on, apart from the main desktop. When I attempt to mount this
computer's own filesystem as a network share, it works fine, but
that's obvious. I don't know if it's working fine because it's
sharing to Windows 7 or if it's running fine because the network
share is actually a local filesystem. I can only test remotely to
an XP computer.

Yousuf Khan

You say that you are moving files into this shared folder. When
files are _moved_ within the same disk volume, the files retain their
original file protections. So if you move a file that was created in
an area where only you have permissions to it into a shared folder,
it will retain permissions for only you to access it.

The simple solution is to "copy" a file into the shared folder
instead of "moving" it (drag it with the right mouse button instead
of the left button). When copying the file, the copy will be
assigned the permissions of the containing folder which is probably
what you desire.

The following applies to XP but likely is the same for Windows 7.
"How permissions are handled when you copy and move files and
folders"
< http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310316 >

HTH,
JW

 

[Yousuf Khan]

You say that you are moving files into this shared folder. When
files are _moved_ within the same disk volume, the files retain their
original file protections. So if you move a file that was created in
an area where only you have permissions to it into a shared folder,
it will retain permissions for only you to access it.

Not really, files are coming into this directory after being downloaded
from the Internet, but they didn't actually exist anywhere else within
this computer before they came to this directory.

However, when I started having these problems, in order to test out the
problem, I did begin to copy in files into this folder from elsewhere,
both from remote locations and locally. However, the problem was already
present even before any new files were copied or moved in.

The simple solution is to "copy" a file into the shared folder
instead of "moving" it (drag it with the right mouse button instead
of the left button). When copying the file, the copy will be
assigned the permissions of the containing folder which is probably
what you desire.

None of the files had any unusual permissions beforehand, and neither
did this directory. Certainly nothing that would prevent them from even
being read. So whether it was copied in or moved in, should be
irrelevant as everything should be readable at the very least. And the
fact that there are some files in this directory that are readable is a
sign of this.

Yousuf Khan

 

[SC Tom]

Not really, files are coming into this directory after being downloaded
from the Internet, but they didn't actually exist anywhere else within
this computer before they came to this directory.

However, when I started having these problems, in order to test out the
problem, I did begin to copy in files into this folder from elsewhere,
both from remote locations and locally. However, the problem was already
present even before any new files were copied or moved in.


None of the files had any unusual permissions beforehand, and neither did
this directory. Certainly nothing that would prevent them from even being
read. So whether it was copied in or moved in, should be irrelevant as
everything should be readable at the very least. And the fact that there
are some files in this directory that are readable is a sign of this.

Yousuf Khan

I agree with JW's suggestion. I was having similar problems accessing files
on my XP share from Win7 (didn't matter what type- pictures, zip files,
executables, whatever), and found that if I downloaded my files to a
temporary location and then copied them to my XP share, I could access them
from Win7 with no problem. But if I downloaded them directly to the XP
share, or moved them to the XP share, some files would produce error
messages when trying to work with them from Win7. I still have the Send To
powertoy installed on my XP machine, so that makes it very simple and easy
to copy the files I want to share. Once I'm sure they're accessible from
Win7, I delete them from the temporary location.

I agree with your last paragraph- I didn't see any unusual properties in
these files, but the simple act of copying instead of moving made them
readily accessible to both machines. Things that make you go huh. . .

Just my 2 cents worth

 

[Stan Brown]

Apparently Windows 7 maintains zone information in downloaded files, and
automatically "blocks" them. I don't know if this is what's been causing
my wierd issues here, but I'll disable the entire policy, and see what
happens.

Is this of any help?

http://www.howtogeek.com/70012/what-causes-the-file-downloaded-from-
the-internet-warning-and-how-can-i-easily-remove-it/

Or have I misunderstood what the issue is?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The following applies to XP but likely is the same for Windows 7.
"How permissions are handled when you copy and move files and
folders"
< http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310316>

Okay, looking through the permissions, I'm finding that the files that
were having trouble being read were the ones that didn't have the
"Everyone" user group in the list of users. The folder itself has
"Everyone" on its list of allowed access. I would've thought that since
the folder itself had "Everyone" on its access list, that everything
inside this folder would inherit this user group too.

So I did try the "copy" vs. "move" thing, and it does look like when
using "copy" all of the destination folder's permissions are honored,
but when moving, it isn't.

Now is there a bulk (command-line) way to fix the permissions on these
files?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Nil]

Now is there a bulk (command-line) way to fix the permissions on
these files?

The CACLS utility is designed for that:

C:\>CACLS /?
Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files

CACLS filename [/T] [/E] [/C] [/G usererm] [/R user [...]]
[/P usererm [...]] [/D user [...]]
filename Displays ACLs.
/T Changes ACLs of specified files in
the current directory and all subdirectories.
/E Edit ACL instead of replacing it.
/C Continue on access denied errors.
/G usererm Grant specified user access rights.
Perm can be: R Read
W Write
C Change (write)
F Full control
/R user Revoke specified user's access rights
(only valid with /E).
/P usererm Replace specified user's access rights.
Perm can be: N None
R Read
W Write
C Change (write)
F Full control
/D user Deny specified user access.
Wildcards can be used to specify more that one file in a command.
You can specify more than one user in a command.

Abbreviations:
CI - Container Inherit.
The ACE will be inherited by directories.
OI - Object Inherit.
The ACE will be inherited by files.
IO - Inherit Only.
The ACE does not apply to the current file/directory.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The CACLS utility is designed for that:

C:\>CACLS /?
Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files

Yeah thanks, I found that out too after I posted it. Looks like in XP
it's CACLS, while in Windows 7 it's ICACLS.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Is this of any help?

http://www.howtogeek.com/70012/what-causes-the-file-downloaded-from-
the-internet-warning-and-how-can-i-easily-remove-it/

Or have I misunderstood what the issue is?

I tried this idea out myself yesterday, but it didn't seem to do
anything for the issue. However, this particular webpage seems a little
better than the link I was using myself, too bad it won't help in either
case.

It looks like the issue has to do with file permissions and the wierd
way they get transferred around by Windows utilities.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I have a Windows 7 desktop that's sharing several folders out to other
computers, mainly running XP. That's pretty typical, and I'm not having
any problem setting this up, it's already setup and working fine.

However, recently I added a new folder share from the Windows 7
computer. What I'm finding is that some of the files in the folder are
accessible, and some are not. It's unusual because typically I see
either that the whole folder is accessible, or it is not, not just some
things inside it. I'd say half are accessible, and half are not.

When trying to access some files, I get the message: "file not
accessible". Yet, I can see all of these files when viewing the
directory listing in Explorer. What could be causing this?

Yousuf Khan

Okay, so now that I've discovered files weren't inheriting the
"Everyone" user group from the directory, I started explicitly adding
this user group to each of the new files. But of course this is
inconvenient. I started looking for a way to allow the new files to
inherit these access rights from the parent directory. It's not easy,
it's buried down deep in Advanced Permissions.

So this link might help out:

Changing Permissions in Windows 7 - Neowin Forums
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/883534-changing-permissions-in-windows-7/

Yousuf Khan

 

[- Bobb -]

Okay, so now that I've discovered files weren't inheriting the "Everyone"
user group from the directory, I started explicitly adding this user group
to each of the new files. But of course this is inconvenient. I started
looking for a way to allow the new files to inherit these access rights
from the parent directory. It's not easy, it's buried down deep in
Advanced Permissions.

So this link might help out:

Changing Permissions in Windows 7 - Neowin Forums
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/883534-changing-permissions-in-windows-7/

Yousuf Khan

Old thread but I'm just reading and wondering:
Do you use the same account name/password on all systems?
If so, I would think that "everyone" issue would have been bypassed because
you are " Yousef" on both systems and would pass login info along with
request. I'm just installing first win7 system at the house and reading
threads here for 'gotchas'.

Thanks for the info.

 

[SC Tom]

Old thread but I'm just reading and wondering:
Do you use the same account name/password on all systems?
If so, I would think that "everyone" issue would have been bypassed because you are " Yousef" on both systems and
would pass login info along with request. I'm just installing first win7 system at the house and reading threads
here for 'gotchas'.

Thanks for the info.

I have the same user name and password on both my systems, but still run into permissions errors. One reason is because
you can't have two machines with the same name on the network or workgroup. So even though it's the same name, it's not
the same person. One would be PC1/SC Tom and the other PC2/SC Tom. If you're using the same OS on both (I'm not), then
you can share permissions between the two that way. There are numerous ways to do it, and the info is readily available
on line.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Old thread but I'm just reading and wondering:
Do you use the same account name/password on all systems?
If so, I would think that "everyone" issue would have been bypassed because
you are " Yousef" on both systems and would pass login info along with
request. I'm just installing first win7 system at the house and reading
threads here for 'gotchas'.

Thanks for the info.

Yes, it's the same username across all computers. Doesn't help.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Char Jackson]

Yes, it's the same username across all computers. Doesn't help.

Both the username and password have to match.