Member Avatar for nizzy1115

I have xp on one hard drive and i installed vista public beta on another drive in my computer. The install went fine and i was up and running on both os's. I wanted to access my my documents folder off of my windows xp installation and i was prompted by vista that i needed to apply rights to it so i did and i could access my my documents of xp in vista. Now, when i boot to xp, i get errors that my desktop is not accessible, and my my documents is not accessible. Is there a way to give it rights in xp to view these, or can i disable the rights in vista?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by goldeagle2005

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Short summary and likely cause (context from the thread)
Most of the suggestions above are on target: allowed Vista to "apply rights," and that action typically changes NTFS ownership and ACLs so XP accounts no longer have access. As and noted, restoring an earlier state in Vista can sometimes undo the change; if that does not, here are safe, practical steps to repair access from XP and some troubleshooting notes building on 's NTFS point.

How to fix from XP (GUI)

  1. Boot XP and sign in as a local Administrator.
  2. If XP Home: disable Simple File Sharing (My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> uncheck "Use Simple File Sharing"). The Security tab appears once this is off.
  3. Right-click the affected folder (the My Documents on the XP drive) -> Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner tab. Select the Administrators group or your XP username and check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects", then Apply.
  4. Back in the Security tab add your user or the Administrators group and grant Full Control; remove any explicit Deny entries. Let the change propagate to subfolders/files.

Alternatives, cautions, and follow-ups

  • If you cannot fix from XP, boot Vista and add the local Administrators group (or explicitly add the XP account) with Full Control so the ACL includes a built-in group common to both installs. Avoid giving "Everyone" Full Control as a long-term fix.
  • If files were encrypted with EFS, changing ownership won't recover them — you need the original user certificate/keys.
  • If Windows still reports "Desktop not accessible," try creating a new XP user, sign in once, then copy the data (after fixing permissions) into that profile. Always back up the data before changing ownership/ACLs.

These steps complement the restore suggestion from and the NTFS diagnosis from ; they should get XP reading the files again without reformatting.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Laser

Try the Restore feature in Vista. Right click the folder, go to properties and then the Previous Versions tab. Select an earlier date and restore.

Member Avatar for denman

I have xp on one hard drive and i installed vista public beta on another drive in my computer. The install went fine and i was up and running on both os's. I wanted to access my my documents folder off of my windows xp installation and i was prompted by vista that i needed to apply rights to it so i did and i could access my my documents of xp in vista. Now, when i boot to xp, i get errors that my desktop is not accessible, and my my documents is not accessible. Is there a way to give it rights in xp to view these, or can i disable the rights in vista?

...M$ might actually be able to help in this case, ...there's a "Feedback" icon on the Vista desktop that provides all kinds of panes to describe a glitch like that. The "Restore" in Vista should help quicker tho as Laser suggests, ...Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools same as in XP, ...hope that helps and let us know how you make out ..."the Old Geek"

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