Write Protected files can be a real blessing or real pain depending on what you are trying to do.
Advantages
Can stop changes being accidentally made to a file
Disadvantages
can prevent required changes being made to a file
- Making a file read only
- Removing write protection
Implementing write protection on files or folders
Creating write protected files can be done in a number of ways, this includes.
Right clicking on a file or folder and selecting properties, then under the general tab – attributes – select read only.
(if you want to change a single file this can be done at the file itself, but if you want to create lots of write protected files, right click on the parent directory, if all files are write protected the file protection properties arrow will be completely black, but if only certain file are write protected the arrow will be grey)
Write protected files – causes
If your having an issue with write protected files such as not being able to remove write protection there could be a number of causes for this which can include..
- Files are on a local or network share which has write protection beyond your current user access level.
- File or files have been copied from a read only source such as a CD and still maintain there local file protection.
- Files are stored on a flash media which has a hardware write protection switch.
- Files are on another hard drive which is formatted using NTFS, the files and directory structure still carry the original permissions.
To fix this you need to ensure your current account has admin privileges then you can assign access to any files or directories yourself.
Checkout our other articles for more help on write protected or locked files.
computer adviser write protected files article