Circumventing XP "Make this folder private" protection

[annihilator_god]

the grunt is right... and i did log in as "Administrator" for my experiment. I already had the "welcome" screen disabled, so logging in was just like hitting ctrl+alt+del twice from the welcome screen.

Private files are kept PRIVATE. only the user with the UID that made the files/folders can access the files/folders

But i just had a brainstorm.... doesn't the linux kernel 2.6 have ntfs support? you might have a way to get the files by booting a boot-cd distro like knoppix or phlak

[jinxy]

Yes you can useing Knoppix i just tried it.

My point about the Admin account is you can still access private files by changing the access control lists. You have admin and physical control you own it. Type CACLS in cmd. Have a look at what it producess

[Vorlin]

Also, what methods (other than more frequent backups) can I use to protect my files from deletion without this problem occuring again?

Simple recommendation would be to get a few CD-RWs and make a few cheap "v1.0" backups. This way, if you lose them later on, you can still have a CD with them on it. When you update your source and things all look good, verify the source on the machine, erase (format) the current CD-RW and burn a new copy. If you have SourceSafe (I think that's it) for MS, you can check your stuff in and have your own CVS-esque tree otherwise you could use CVS and CVSWeb on a linux box to make sure you keep integrity and all tracked changes intact.

[blaize]

I know my reply is a bit tardy, but I've been working sun up to sun down the past two weeks and havn't had time to check the forums until now.

Thanks for all the advice. I didn't encrypt the files (luckily), but I was worried that that might be what making the files private does. Now that I know that that isn't true, I think I will take annihilator_god's advice and try to get them through linux. My current distrobution is about three years old and doesn't do NTFS, but I've been wanting to get a new one for a while anyway. If that doesn't work I'll try NTFSDOS.

I had already tried logging in as "Administrator" from the login screen (I had the welcome screen disabled as well, so the login is a NT style username and password dialog)

As for giving family members limited accounts, I did this, but I didn't see any way of taking away write permissions from selected files but not others. This is not so much of a problem now, as I am not living at home anymore.

I can't get to work on it right away, because I'm taking a VERY full load at college (using the standard on in two out formula its 63 hours of work a week, but it seems like much more, because I'm in several lit classes...not my forte). Luckily it's only for another 4 weeks, so I should be able to work on it after that, and I'll post how it works out.

Thanks again for the help

[cgkanchi]

OK, since no one can give you the solution, here you go....

1. Log in as an administrator. It'll help if you give the account you want to use these files with admin rights and log in as that account. You can take them away after this is done later.

2. Disable simple file sharing (My Computer -> Tools -> View -> Uncheck "Use simple file sharing (recommended)" ). You should actually do this even if you don't have a problem. It helps you secure your computer better.

3. Right click on the folder, select properties.

4. Click on the security tab.

5. You should see a long random number (something like 34556-565623-35653-23424). Click on it and click remove.

6. Click add and type in your username and press OK. Give the account full control.

7. Click the advanced button. Under the permissions tab, uncheck the box next to "Inherit from parent..."

8. Click the owner tab. Select your username. Check "Replace owner on sub containtainers and objects" and click OK. This could take a looooooooong time, so be patient.

9. You're done!

I don't know if this'll work on XP Home, but it definitely works on Professional.

Cheers,
cgkanchi

EDIT: Disabling simple file sharing changes the Access Control System for files in XP to something VERY similar to the one found in 2K. Thus, you can give access to certain files and not to others.

Cheers,
cgkanchi

[SDK]

See this info.. Directly from Microsoft!

http://support.microsoft.com/default...308421&sd=tech