[SOLVED] file icons with padlock symbol

Hi

I have installed windows 7 64-bit - works great btw. Was previously running 32-bit XP and had "my docs" folder on seperate hard disk.
There was a probelm initally being denied access to this folder -which was fixed by delving into security and changing the "ownership". Although it appears now I can access the folder and (so far) most files all the representative icons have a padlock symbol - what does this mean?

Oh and if your wondering - I did not use the import files application.

thanks for nothing

I'm sorry you didn't find an answer here. I'm sure if someone knew the answer they would have tried to help.

I myself have unanswered questions on this forum.

It is unwise to have altered the security options. The folders which are locked, or denied access, are system files. They are called "junction files" and there main purpose is for backward compatibility. An installation file for an old XP prog, for example, to be successful , would be looking for the old folder names.
To unlock the files can be a recipe for disaster. You will find, over a period, you will begin to get scattered duplicates of your files in many different places.

The locked files are only visible if the Tools - View setting defaults have been altered in Windows explorer.

However, if you want to unlock them, apply the attached reg. This will give you a right click drop down option on any folder/file to which you need to gain access.

Fwiw. 5 hours is a long time for an answer, I agree. In this case maybe a proble with the time zones and the helpers abodes on this site. I, for example, am typing at 06.00 am

had this exact same problem myself, share problems from whs to w7. Same as yourself changed the ownership, shares, everything i could think of to get access to the shares. Eventually, something worked but had the same padlocks on the folders. Figured it out. If you right click, and go to 'share with', the padlock means 'nobody'. just add the 'Homegroup' and the resfresh the folders and the padlocks disappear. et voila!

Thats very handy to know ... Thanks Con

I actually forgot about my original post (a little annoyed). I did eventually access the files by changing something...can't remember what.

The "My Docs" folder had the padlock removed but sub folders/files had the padlock symbol. Still managed to access everything though. Now that I have tried what the above have advised....the padlock has disappeared from the "my docs" sub folders/files but "my docs" now has the padlock icon. Still I can access everything though and 1 padlock icon is better than millions. Unless somebody tells me I have compromised security?

A belated THANKS to those people who helped on this old question.

ps Took me a while to figure this "libaries" concept

Why is that everytime I download a new file a padlock appears on it and the older one's dont?

Thanks for that! Just wasted about 3 hours fiddling with permissions etc to try to get rid of those padlocks. Don't even know why they appeared as not there to start with?....

I suddenly got a lot of padlocks although there did not seem to be any problems in accessing any of them. It was all the files I had previously attempted to copy to CD, a copy which failed for some reason.

Delete the files and then click undo. Worked for me.