Windows 7 explorer folder padlock icon

Haven't seen any malware and AV is the same on all pc's so it should affect all of them the same. Are their roaming profile folder permissions set correctly? The link below has the appropriate settings and configuration. That may explain the padlock To continue this discussion, please ask a new question. Laplink Software, Inc. Neil Laplink. The box is "Replace owner for subcontainers and objects". The only reason the padlock is there is because you are not sharing the folder with anyone.

If you are not on a network then don't let it worry you but if you are on a network it is so easy to just right click the folder scroll down to "share with" and "hey presto" share it. Well, now! On my other computer upgraded from Windows XP Pro with a clean install of Windows 7 Pro I have two drives with a different OS on each and in both cases my Documents and Settings folders had a padlock on them.

Following various instructions within this forum did not resolve the problem since every avenue attempted was met with a dialogue stating the obvious Following the instructions in the link given was instrumental in removing the padlocks in each case but only at the expense of each respective folder also disappearing! Now my problem is that although the folders are missing there is a shortcut showing in each but clicking on the shortcut now brings up the message "Documents and Settings is not available.

Access denied". It would appear to me that Windows 7 of any flavour is merely a botched "upgrade"? If Microsoft were really interested in making an error-free OS then this stupid "glitch" not only would not have occurred but since it did, would have been obviated much more promptly than it has.

Still, I suppose when one is making obscene profits from expensive rubbish nothing else is really of interest is it? None of the above theories worked for me. Access Denied messages occurred even while trying to take ownership with elevation.

What could easily be done in XP took some figuring out in Win7. To fix this issue, Enable the administrator account, login and change the permissions e.

Everyone, Authenticated Users - Full Control. All of the padlocks disappeared and allowed changes in ownership and permissions. Oh, yes, it's "The Solution" is it? Well it didn't work for me, so it can't be so wonderful, can it? Windows 7 tells me I'm the owner of my Documents and Settings folder, and I've got "Full Control", but it won't let me access it. How sensible is that?

I had a red padlock, now I've got a blue arrow indicating a shortcut? When I log in as another user, the folder doesn't even appear in explorer!

Can anyone suggest a decent reason why I shouldn't just go back to xp? Anyone from Microsoft reading this? You need to login as Administrator to make these changes. An account with administrator equivalence does not seem to work. I can empathise with your frustration, but once you accept the new way the world is going with Win7 things become a lot calmer.

I only found that out two weeks ago! Do a search for virtualstore to find out what it is used for! I agree - what was MS thinking? This should have been fixed ages ago, but I suspect that in order to do so MS would have had to junk Win7 and start all over - obviously not practical. So I guess we all have to suffer until things change. And who was the brilliant soul who posted an answer in HTML?

Where is good ol' XP when you need something easy to use and relatively reliable? With Win7 MS has invented a disaster! You do not own the folder and its contents, this is NOT the same as whatever permissions you think you have. I am using a Windows 7 Professional laptop on a company domain, so yours may differ.

I am the domain Administrator and my personal username is in the machines Administrators group. Please ensure you are a member of the machines Administrators group. The Administrators group is now the owner of that folder and everything within it and has been granted permissions too. You can now do what you want with that folder and its contents.

In other words the padlock was indicating that the folder was outside the inherited permissions structure? Single user on a home network here, padlocks all over my pics, unable to modify a Word document I just created. Clunky workarounds to unlock every file and image. Just when we thought it was safe to trust Microsoft after Vista Better be solved in Windows next revision or it's off to Apple for me. I've had enough of this nonsense. Thanks Hawkeye "share it" with Nobody. This is the best and easiest way to get rid of all pad -locks.

Then All the padlocks are removed and a last screen with this notification "your files are share", and finally touch "Done" icon. I had this problem too. It is nothing to do with windows. I spend a couple hours a week trying to solve one problem or the other caused by this crap company.

Usually I don't even look at the Microsoft forum answers because more often than not, they are so ridiculous -- like this one -- it's a complete waste.

Maybe I should consider someone didn't suggest re-installing Windows, that seems to be a favorite. I had the same problem and, as usual the Microsoft folks acted as if they had no idea what I was talking about Anyway, I went elsewhere and found this solution which worked quite well for me.

Yeah, you can do all that complicated registry and permissions stuff,. The older concept of modifying only share permissions got renamed to "Advanced Sharing" and Windows introduced a new Sharing Wizard to share files. In modern versions such as Windows 8. The Sharing Wizard not only sets up network sharing permissions but it also explicitly configures local NTFS access permissions for other standard user accounts on the same PC so they either get read-only or writable access to your shared folder, or get access denied, depending on which users you choose to share with.

When you stop sharing the folder, the Sharing Wizard does not always reliably delete the share. It removes the access to the folder from other local user accounts on the same PC and network accounts.

The lock overlay icon indicates exactly this - that the item is private - not even local Authenticated Users group can access it. How to remove the padlock icon method 1. One way to remove the padlock icon is to unregister the icon overlay shell extension handler that is used for the padlock icon. To do this, follow these simple instructions:. Tip: You can access any desired Registry key with one click. That's it. The padlock icon will be gone from all your folders and files.

Note that since you clicked "Share with nobody", the item will remain private and inaccessible from other local user accounts except the Administrators group. You just made the icon hidden. If you need to restore the padlock icon later, you can double click the exported. REG backup file you created earlier to merge it into the Registry and restart the Explorer shell again. How to remove the padlock icon method 2. Windows 11 Uninstall Clock.

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