Windows 10: Why does Windows 10 control where I save my documents, etc.?

When I do a "Save As", I don't expect to be told that I can't put the item where I want to. Who dreamt up this piece of nannying?

:)

 

Read only not set on ALL folders

All files suddenly set to read only and upgrade to Windows 10. Can't do a Save or Save-as with any of my own documents and I am the administrator !!! Why does Windows 10 do this ?? How can I change all folders so I can Save changes to documents ??

 

Unstable location for icons

I have a few windows open and need a scratch pad for notes. Rightclick/New/Word Document and the icon appears. Why it doesn't open the document escapes me but MS forces me to name it. Ok, it then opens a document and I work the notes. Once I am done,
I close and save my work.

Why does Win then relocate the icon to under all my work? I placed it where I needed it for easy access. Maybe easy access is no longer an option here. If I want to open that same file, I have to clear the desktop of all windows messing up my work space.

Why cannot Win just leave the icon where it was created?

 

You can obviously choose where to put any piece of data or file where ever you want. You can set it up in advance or you can choose ad hoc.

 

Well not exactly. Without changing permissions you can't save to root of C: drive, to another users or system folders. That has been Windows security design for years.

You can change permissions to allow full access to everything if you want but it will make your system less secure (any malware could do anything) and any programs that rely on default permissions may act in unpredictable ways. Not a good idea...

 

Although you are 100% correct, I don't think that the OP had this in mind.

 

My settings will only allow me to save a new document to either "This PC" in the C drive or "Documents" in the D drive. Although I'm the only user, when I try to "Save As" to anywhere else, it tells me I don't have administrative permission. Having saved to the Documents folder, I then have to drag or copy the item to the folder I actually want it to be in.

There seems to be no obvious way to amend (or do away with) this setting.

Frustrating on a busy day.

Ron

 

This is most likely just down to permissions. A bit more info would help us to say what can be done about it.

Is the account you are using when you try to save a standard user or an administrator?

Do you sign in with the same account when you move the saved file?

What is the full path to the folder you want to save to?

From which app are you trying to save?

When you do successfully move the item, do you get told 'You need Administrator permission to move to this folder...' and have to click 'Continue' to complete the move?

 

Are you saving to a folder under Program Files or Program Files (x86) by any chance? If so this has been an annoyance since Windows 7. I write small scripting programs and they usually save .ini files or data files to the same folder as the exe. If it is run under one of the Program Files folders I get the permission hassle.

Like you I am the only user on the system. So I used Take Ownership Context Menu Command from Tutorials to just take ownership of everything in the Program Files folder trees. Note you do not want to take ownership of all of the system partition, such as C:\ or you will have issues. But my systems have run fine for years using the Take Ownership method.

The alternative was to run programs As Administrator for only that reason. I think the Take Ownership method is a better choice if you are the only user on the machine. But read the Tutorial and see if it applies to your situation.

 

Another take on this. Save As defaults to the default directory in your User folder. If you want to change that behavior in say Office, you just go into the settings and change the default directories. All programs if written properly, will allow you to go into Preferences and change the default location which gets put into the Registry also.

All that Save As is doing is allowing you to change the location that you want the file to be saved. Say you use a USB thumb drive to keep files on between work and home. You would save one copy to your hard drive, which is Save As, if you opened the file on the Thumb Drive. If you click Save instead of Save as. The file will be saved to the device that you opened it from.

Think of this like a person delivering mail to a group of buildings, but the mail has no mailbox number on it, just the physical address of where the mail needs to be delivered. If the mail person does not see a name inside the mailbox, they will hold on to it. Now if they open up the box and see a name, then the mail is placed in that box. Basically the same concept.