A strange permission issue

[backwoodsman]

Sorry this is a bit long and convoluted; just not real sure where to go with this one. Got a Windows 10 machine that's having what appears to be a widespread folder permission issue. The original complaint was that the scanner wouldn't work, which turned out to be the software refusing to start because it doesn't have write permission to the Documents folder where it wants to save. Documents has Read-only checked; I can uncheck it, but next time I look it's checked again. Apparently that problem is widespread, because there are a number of other strange problems in other programs that appear related.

I used Tweaking.com's Windows Repair Tool to reset all the file permissions, and a few other fixes, with no effect.

I tried to create a new user account to see if it has the same problems, but it won't let me.

I uninstalled & reinstalled the all-in-one printer's driver, except it won't completely reinstall. It shows up in Devices & Printers, but says "Driver unavailable". Uninstalling was probably a bad idea; should've known it wouldn't be able to write something it needs somewhere. Hence the real deal-breaking problem: He can deal with the other stuff for a while, but he absolutely has to print, and now he's upset that I made his printer not work.

I'd just nuke & pave, but he wants to limp along for a while until a big project is finished. So, any ideas how this happened, and what (else) I can do to at least get the printer working for the moment?

 

[Porthos]

Got a Windows 10 machine that's having what appears to be a widespread folder permission issue.

Controlled folder access on by any chance?
A printer model number would be nice.

 

[Phillip Manning]

Had a problem recently where an end user was unable to open word documents because they did not have permission to do so. Turned out to be AVG that was causing the problem, once removed the problem went away. It could be worth disabling or uninstalling the Antivirus.

 

[HCHTech]

Also, buy the time you're down to doing a permissions run with Tweaking, I would just skip right to a Windows reload. Something is scrambled and I'd be wary of trusting that installation any further.

 

[backwoodsman]

Controlled folder access on by any chance?

hmm, I think it's unlikely; it's a standalone machine in a 2-person shop, no network, network administrator, etc. Is there a way it could've been turned on some other way, like antivirus?

A printer model number would be nice.

Didn't write that down when I was there, sorry. I'll get it later unless I get this fixed first.

Had a problem recently where an end user was unable to open word documents because they did not have permission to do so. Turned out to be AVG that was causing the problem, once removed the problem went away. It could be worth disabling or uninstalling the Antivirus.

Good point. It's running Avast, basically identical to AVG but with more bells & whistles. I don't recommend that with Win10, but never seen it cause a problem before, so ignored it. I'll try disabling it. Could be a recent update that wasn't thoroughly tested.

Also, buy the time you're down to doing a permissions run with Tweaking, I would just skip right to a Windows reload. Something is scrambled and I'd be wary of trusting that installation any further.

I would've, but he doesn't want that done til some big project is done, so at this point it's a last resort. It's his computer, and his money, so that's the way it is.

 

[frase]

Avast, remove seems like the reg is berked. As it may have blocked something it flagged. Check the msconfig and check out services , disable all apart from ms services, just to clean boot and see if that resolves the issue. Then it is check uncheck time until you narrow it down.

 

[fincoder]

hmm, I think it's unlikely; it's a standalone machine in a 2-person shop, no network, network administrator, etc. Is there a way it could've been turned on some other way, like antivirus?

I've had ordinary home users turn that have turned on Controlled Folder Access in the past, causing these kinds of issues.

 

[backwoodsman]

I didn't get as much time for this one as I wanted to today, but did rule out a few things.

Controlled folder access was off. Toggled it on & off just for good measure; no change.

I uninstalled Avast; no change.

I forgot to mention earlier, I tried Safe Mode; no change. I'll try msconfig/services tomorrow.

I checked on another (working) Win10 machine, and it also has the Read-only attribute set on Documents and other folders, and won't stay off, so I assume that's normal. Never noticed that before; one wonders what that attribute actually does, because clearly it doesn't make the folders read-only.

 

[Diggs]

I've always had one-touch scanning problems with Win10. If the customer initiates the scan from their computer no problem. If they hit the one-touch scan button on the printer nothing happens. I struggled to figure it out and ended up retraining the customer to initiate scans from their computer instead of the printer.