You know in Windows XP when you tried to move a folder, but you had one of the files in that folder held open by some other program? You couldn’t do it, right? You got a standard error message.
Well now in Windows Vista, you still can’t do it, but instead of the standard error message, it tells you:
You’ll need to provide administrator permission to move to this folder
Okay, great! Click “continue” — the screen dims dramatically, “Windows User Account Control” — “File Operation” it says — Windows needs your permission to continue. Brilliant, you have my permission, go on… So I click the Continue button.
Oh oh! “Destination Folder Access Denied” — “You need permission to perform this action”.
What the hell? I just gave it permission! Click “Try Again”, it just comes back with the same error. Grrrr!
I click cancel, it flashes up quickly “Moving item, time remaining 8 mins 5 seconds…” And then the window disappears, and of course the folder has not been moved!
WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! In XP I could have figured out what the problem was in half that time. Instead Vista leads me down the garden path, asking for my permission, totally failing to tell the difference between an open file and a file I don’t have permission for.
And even after that, it shows a dialog estimating the time it will take to move the file, even though it has no possibility of moving the file!
Isn’t software supposed to get better with each release, not worse?
I really cannot understand how Microsoft can mess up such a simple thing that worked perfectly well before.
June 1, 2008 at 10:22 pm |
Oh come on, first of all you have identified that the files / folder you are trying to move / copy is read (and possibly write) locked, and yet you criticise the UAC system?! The only time Vista will ask you to authenticate / provide permission when performing file operations, is if the file / folder is marked as a system file or in a system or root directory. This is important for security and something XP is VERY sadly lacking.
Clicking ‘Try Again’ without rectifying the problem is down right silly really! What do you expect to happen exactly? I don’t mean to be rude, but in this case it does sound like the problem is between the keyboard and the chair.
June 2, 2008 at 11:17 am |
I was playing devil’s advocate here. As a software engineer, I understand exactly why I couldn’t move the folder.
However, many, many other people encountering this situation would have no clue. And instead of informing the user about the actual source of the problem, Windows Vista starts asking for them to give their permission, which has absolutely no effect on resolving the situation.
In fact it leads them in the wrong direction completely!
That is why this is worse behaviour than XP.
And yes, a user with no knowledge of the problem may well click “Try again”, as they are not informed what the real cause of the problem is, and could easily assume it has ‘fixed itself’.
You state that “The only time Vista will ask you to authenticate / provide permission when performing file operations, is if the file / folder is marked as a system file or in a system or root directory”.
But as described in the post, that is clearly not the case. (Unless read/write-locked directories are marked as system files, which would make me wonder why they aren’t marked “read/write-locked” instead).
July 7, 2008 at 11:42 pm |
“The only time Vista will ask you to authenticate / provide permission when performing file operations, is if the file / folder is marked as a system file or in a system or root directory.”
Interesting. So explain this to me. I log into my user account. I open up my Documents folder. I want to do some cleanup. I see a folder in the top level of my Documents folder that really should belong inside another folder, which is also inside the top level of my Documents folder. So I click and drag the first folder onto the second folder and drop it.
Bang – “You’ll need to provide administrator permission to move to this folder”. Before we go any further, can I just ask why? I’m logged into my own account, I’m inside my own Documents folder, and I want to move one folder, that’s already inside my Documents folder because at some point in the past I either created it myself within my Documents folder or moved it there, into another folder which exists because of the same exact actions. No matter what the folder contains (it contains JPEGS), why am I being asked this question at all, when each folder shouldn’t even be able to exist within the Documents folder in the first place if there was a permissions problem.
So I click Continue, and you know the drill: screen goes dark, a second dialog appears saying “Windows needs your permission to continue”, I click “Continue”, the screen un-dims, and a dialog pops up saying “Destination Folder Acess Denied”. Now this is interesting – maybe it’s not the folder I’m trying to move, but the one I’m trying to move it to? That’s what Windows is telling me. The destination folder also contains JPEGS, but I decide to test anyway – I create a quick test file in the top level of my Documents folder, and then drag and drop it into the destination folder. No problems.
So what I’m left with is a dialog that dares me to “Try Again” or Cancel. Vista and I both know that if I try again the same thing will happen, so now I just feel insulted.
What’s really sad about this is that I am a big proponent of UAC. It’s actually a rather ingenious way to solve a lot of problems in not only Windows, but computers in general. And like they di with Active Desktop, Microsoft is going to screw it up and turn the world against because of astoundingly bad implementation.
I really don’t have the time to deal with this. A comparison of the security settings under properties dialog of both folders shows them to be exactly ther same. I logged into my system to clean up my Documents folder in preparation to edit some JPEGS. It’s called using your computer to get something done. But my computer won’t let me. So I have two choices – spend an hour searching online (which is how I came across this page – no Microsoft pages showed up in the results for this error), or leave the folders where Vista has apparently decided IT wants them to be, not where I want them to be.
Nothings open btw – no files are in use – this is a straight-up permissions error on Microsoft’s part. This is what I used to laugh at Mac user’s when OSX first came out. Now I’m the one with egg on my face for upgrading. Thanks Microsoft!
August 7, 2008 at 3:12 am |
So… How do I move that folder I made in my “Documents” directory into another folder that I made in my “Documents” directory? I suppose I could COPY it over (it lets me do that) and delete the original, but there is alot of stuff in there, and it seems awful annoying to copy Gigs of data because Vista has decided I can’t move a directory that I made…
August 9, 2008 at 10:41 pm |
I am just back from trying to help a friend with the same problem. He wants to copy some files from his XP desktop to his Vista Laptop so he can take them on a trip. As soon as we try to paste the file onto the Vista Desktop we get the “permissions” problem. He uses the same name on both PCs, same Password and I checked each file and verified he had full control on both machines – but still no-go. I tried UAC on and off, I tried everything I could think of. If anyone finds a solution please post it!
October 21, 2008 at 12:49 am |
“Oh come on, first of all you have identified that the files / folder you are trying to move / copy is read (and possibly write) locked, and yet you criticise the UAC system?! The only time Vista will ask you to authenticate / provide permission when performing file operations, is if the file / folder is marked as a system file or in a system or root directory. This is important for security and something XP is VERY sadly lacking.
Clicking ‘Try Again’ without rectifying the problem is down right silly really! What do you expect to happen exactly? I don’t mean to be rude, but in this case it does sound like the problem is between the keyboard and the chair.”
One has to be very arrogant to write something like this in response to the perfectly reasonable articulation of the problem by the blog author, and in total denial of everyday experience of thousands of frustrated users of Vista. I am one of them, and I am not retarded. Far from it. Instead of addressing what seems to be a crying blunder by Microsoft programmers (offering to the user, in a circular pattern, something that WILL NOT be performed instead of pointing to the source of the problem), the guy points his finger at the victims.
December 2, 2008 at 7:33 am |
So how in Gods good name DO you do this!!! I hate Microcrap!!!!!
January 4, 2009 at 12:56 am |
just been surfing for 4 hours trying to fix this crap
my ‘painless’ transtion moving files from an xp laptop to a vista laptop has turned into an ordeal.
January 4, 2009 at 1:05 am |
Okay so does anyone know if it’s possible to turn off this ’screen-dimming’ UAC feature specifically for running programs and accessing system settings? Is there a way to log in as admin or something?
February 19, 2009 at 7:31 pm |
Very annoying problem and I can not believe that there isn’t an easy fix. Ruddy Microsoft :(
February 20, 2009 at 10:04 pm |
I found out how to prevent Windows Vista making the screen go dark.
Big warning: Because the ‘dark screen of annoyance’ is a security feature, disabling it will leave you a lot more vulnerable to security breaches, like viruses, trojans and other attacks. Do it at your own risk!