I am using Vista on a new laptop and I am the only user and logged in as administrator. I want to open the folder Documents and Settings but when I try I get a dialogue box "Access Denied".
How can I gain access?
Many thanks
Tom Anderson, Leighton Buzzard, England.
Living life a day at a time

"Tom Anderson"

I fell foul of that one too. Through help from this newsgroup, I found the answer. That folder, as well as certain others, are there only to enable legacy applications to be redirected to the 'Users' folder structure. They are not folders, only pointers or links within Vista and they do not 'contain' any files etc.
Hope that makes sense for you :)
regards, Les Hay, Livingston, Scotland

- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 000736-2, 26/04/2007 Tested on: 29/04/2007 23:53:17 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software. avast.com

There is no default "Documents and Settings" folder in Vista.
There is a Users folder and a UserName folder and a Documents folder but no "Documents and settings"
Perhaps this was copied from an XP system?
In any case right click on the folder and select Properties > Security, click "Edit" and add your logged-in UserName to the permissions list with Full Control.
"Tom Anderson"

Well after seeing the above response I have to modify mine and thanks to the "heads-up" on that.
I guess you have "hide protected system files" unchecked in Folder Options > View or you wouldn't be seeing those "junctions" at all: realtime-vista.com/general/2007/04/access_denied_to_documents_and.htm
"Rollin' Rog" <Rollin' Rog newsgroup.nospam>

Vista has hidden junctions, which, in Windows Explorer, are shown as hidden shortcuts, with File Folder properties; they are used, in part, to redirect program installations that rely on the old XP folder names and XP locations). "Documents and Settings" is one of those junctions, and not a folder as such (and yes, when clicked on, will give you an "access denied" message). For more info (which is one among many articles on the subject) see:
devsource.com/article2/0,1895,1999637,00.asp
"Tom Anderson"

"Rollin' Rog" <Rollin' Rog newsgroup.nospam>

Bad advice. Do not change the permissions on this folder.
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

"Tom Anderson" wrote

This folder is only seen if you set it to show hidden folders. It's hidden for a reason. And in this case that's because that folder is not used for data or file storage in Vista. It's one of several folders that are carried over to Vista from XP for the benefit of legacy apps which expect to see it, but what those folders are is a junction. These folders are hidden, have the shortcut arrow and give access denied. It contains only a pointer to the actual folders in Vista where the data is kept. Hence there is no need to open it, and don't change the permissions on these junctions either. It can cause problems for legacy apps.
To see where a junction points open an elevated command prompt. Click the Start Orb, type in cmd, right click on it at the top left, and choose Run as Administrator. Navigate to the folder that contains one of these access denied junctions, and give the command: dir /al
Junctions are identified by <Junction> and the folder it points to is in brackets at the end of the line. Documents and Settings points to C:\Users.
From a post by Jimmy Brush here is a list of legacy folders from XP that are junctions in Vista and the Vista folders to which they point.
Windows XP Location Windows Vista Location \Documents and Settings \Users \Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents \Users\$USER$\Documents \Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Music \Users\$USER$\Music \Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Pictures \Users\$USER$\Pictures \Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Videos \Users\$USER$\Videos \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Application Data \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Cookies \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings \Users\$USER$\AppData\Local \Documents and Settings\$USER$\NetHood \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts \Documents and Settings\$USER$\PrintHood \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Recent \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent \Documents and Settings\$USER$\SendTo \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Start Menu \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Templates \Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Application Data \Users\$USER$\AppData\Local \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\History \Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History \Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files \Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files \Documents and Settings\All Users \ProgramData \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data \ProgramData \Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop \Users\Public\Desktop \Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents \Users\Public\Documents \Documents and Settings\All Users\Favorites \Users\Public\Favorites \Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu \Documents and Settings\All Users\Templates \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Templates \Documents and Settings\Default User \Users\Default "
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

In addition to Junctions, Vista also uses Symbolic Links (symlinkd's if exploring using Command Prompt), such as the file "All Users" under C:\Users. Again, these are not the usual .lnk file-type shortcuts, but have icons that make them appear to be so in Windows Explorer. C:\Users\All Users is a pointer to C:\ProgramData. If the All Users symlinkd file is clicked on, you won't get an "access denied", but rather will see the contents of the ProgramData folder mirrored, without actually being taken to that folder.
"dean-dean"