Make Folder Difficult to Delete

Hi guys,

I want to make a folder (and anything inside of it) difficult to delete. Can I create a new owner for it so that I would have to take the steps to change that in order to delete it ? I'm not looking for anything fool-proof, just something to make it not so easy to accidentally delete. I'm not too savvy with owners and permissions so I'm not really sure what to do or even if I'm on the right track.

Thanks

Hi Emperor. Welcome to EF.

The simplest way is making them to become read-only files and folders, at least system will prompt you if to be deleted. But it makes them non editable unless you reverse the files attribute.

Read-only File and Folder Attribute - Windows 7 Forums

Hi,

On my Windows 8 system I don't get a prompt when deleting a read-only folder, it just goes straight to the recycle bin. I even tried putting a read-only file inside the read-only folder and had the same results.

Thanks for trying to help.

For that, you can go to Recycle Bin Properties. You can check/un-check "Display Delete Confirmation Dialog"

Fixed in W8?

Kevin Ismail said:

Hi Emperor. Welcome to EF.

The simplest way is making them to become read-only files and folders, at least system will prompt you if to be deleted. But it makes them non editable unless you reverse the files attribute.

Read-only File and Folder Attribute - Windows 7 Forums

Click to expand...

It definitely works in XP.

That doesn't work in W7 (and probably Vista).
That was one of the first things I asked/complained about when I was using the W7 Betas.

Also Windows Explorer (in W7) didn't allow you to set "Read-only" on folders (you could do it with the "Command Prompt").

You are saying they've fixed those functions in W8?

Well I don't really have the knowledge of it.

But I find by default Win 8 will just throw things to recycle bin when pressing delete key. But it actually can be set to be prompted on the properties. Customizing the Bin size a bit safe (to me) since we can restore accidentally deleted stuffs immediately.

Playing with permission only effective when then we log on as other or limited user. But once we log on as admin, again the files and folders are vulnerable as we gain the full control of them, when delete key is pressed it will still be gone.

I did some encryption in the past but stupidly forgot to backup the encryption keys to external device. When my system crashed, my important stuffs had just gone with it without a chance to recover.

Kevin

Hi guys,

I think I misstated my reply. I don't want to change how the recycle bin works; my point was that I see no difference between deleting read-only folders and non-read-only folders (which kind of makes the read-only flag pointless, but that's another issue.)

I want to make a very important folder very difficult to delete, meaning it will require several steps to do so. Ideally I'd like to get an 'access denied' message when I try to delete it unless I either change the folder properties explicitly (preferable) or login as another user.

Thanks.

We actually have the idea from the start.
I googled some and unfortunately the answer from Microsoft is mostly no.
You can use EFS (Encrypting Files System) but the problem is, it will be non editable from other user. When accessed from the inherited user it is still vulnerable (if it is editable then it is deletable).

You might want to seek third party program (I haven't used one)

Hope somebody come up with better idea here.

I think that you'll have to adjust the folder permissions

emperor said:

I think I misstated my reply. I don't want to change how the recycle bin works; my point was that I see no difference between deleting read-only folders and non-read-only folders (which kind of makes the read-only flag pointless, but that's another issue.)

Click to expand...

There is no difference in W7 (on my PC).
"Read-only" only seems to effect programs (not the OS and WMP).

I haven't heard anything about it being fixed in W8, so I suspect it behaves the same as W7.
I can't boot my W8 VHD, so I can't check.

There is a 3rd party program that allow users to password protect folders.
To Users of Windows 7, Vista, XP, 98, NT, ME: Password Protect Folders

Windows 8 Permissions Tutorial
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...low-deny-access-users-groups-windows-8-a.html