Allow access to save/edit files in C Drive (System drive)

[cr720]

Hello All,

I'm really hoping I find an answer to this question besides the one I've found on the internet a hundred times over (That's not a good idea, you shouldn't do it).

My question is: Is there a way to allow a user to create/edit files in the C drive (system drive), and in the Program Files contained there? Let's assume that this user is not only a local admin, but a domain admin as well.

The reason for this is I work for a company that does a lot of editing within these areas of Windows. We need to be able to create and edit files where they are stored. I know one way around we've found is to copy the item out of the folder, edit it, and put it back, but this is a pain in the butt. I also know that most program need to "run as admin", so that's not the problem either. I've given this user every right and permission in the Security tab of the C drive, and had it propagate down through all files, folders, and sub-folders, and still I'm hit with an error that says "Access is Denied" or another one saying that I don't have the right privileges.

Please, if anyone knows how to change this in 7 it would be much appreciated. I know that this worked in XP, and I'm not looking for someone to tell me "this is a bad idea so don't do it", or "maybe it didn't work right in XP". I have seen enough of these.

UPDATE: I have been playing around with saving office and wordpad documents into the C drive, and into the Program files. It seems that I'm able to do both now (for some odd reason), but I still receive intermittent errors when trying to edit or copy/paste or cut/paste from one location to another.

Thanks
-Chris

 

[Gandalf]

I have Win7 Ultimate. I created a test file inside C:\Program Files\Temp.
I had no problems editing it. If I can't recreate your problem, I can't offer a fix.

 

[arges86]

perhaps using the method here
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/
it should work in Windows 7 as well, despite the name of the page
you can just right-click on the file or folder you want ownership and it takes control of it.

 

[sminlal]

...still I'm hit with an error that says "Access is Denied"

Exactly which file are you trying to edit? "Access denied" often means the file is locked (open by a program), which prevents modification by anything else and has nothing to do with the security on the file.

 

[mi1ez]

if it's a specific file "owned" by the system, you can use takeown and icacls from the command line to give specific users access, although I can't remember the specific syntax.

 

[cr720]

The files in questions are mainly files for a time/attendance program that we work with. At the time they are being edited, nothing else is using them (I myself don't need this feature, but my boss does, and she has been doing this for decades, so she knows how to avoid a locked program). The files are also ones that have been added by installing the specific program, or other "database" type files that we import from clients to work on here.

I have tried taking ownership of files/folders, but this comes with mixed results. I can create a file of my own (a test file in word/notepad and other programs), and save them into the program files or C drive (sometimes). I can edit those files, and move them around if I want (again, sometimes). Every once in a while I will get an access denied error, or another error to the effect of "you don't have proper permission to perform this function". A lot of times I'll try the same thing a few seconds later and it will work.

I'm not sure, this whole issue is very flaky, as it happens randomly, but it seems that we are unable to edit more often than not. I'll try the suggestions from Arges86 and Mi1ez and see what happens.