Explorer: Allow setting permissions on multiple objects

Question

Issue #3: Cannot set permissions and ownership on multiple selected files from GUI

Occurs in: Windows Vista and later

Scenario: With Windows Vista and later, there is increased need for users to be in complete control of permissions and file ownership as UAC virtualization and Windows Resource Protection is used to protect files and by default Windows denies permissions to even documents and desktop of other users or other Windows installations. There are countless times when users have to right click to Take Ownership and Grant Admin Permissions to files. However, when more than one file or folder is selected, the Security tab no longer appears in the Properties. This issue did not occur in Windows XP and earlier. Most users are not comfortable with the cmd line yet they want to be able to manage permissions without ending up setting them incorrectly. Microsoft recommends using the cmd line icacls tool to set permissions on multiple files, however as I said, this is not easy to do from the command line with icacls for most users. This feature is highly desired and requested on Windows Server as well, not just Windows client. The Advanced Permissions UI is being redesigned for Windows 8 and therefore Microsoft should take this opportunity to fix this and allow changing security on multiple files just as it allows changing security on a single file currently.

Some examples of clear feedback about number of people asking about this feature in the forums:

1. How to set security on multiple files in one go?
2. Change security on multiple folders at once
3. Setting permissions for multiple files at once
4. How do I grant myself permission to multiple files/folders at once?
5. How to change permissions on multiple folders on network share? Security tab is missing when selecting more than one item
6. Changing permissions of more than one file?
7. Changing file security and ownership for multiple files on Server 2008
8. Changing multiple file permissions?
9. Changing permissions of multiple files
10. How to change permissions for multiple files at once?
11. Cannot change permissions when selecting multiple folders
12. Change NTFS Permissions on Mulitple Folders
13. Need to change ownership permission settings on multiple files in Windows 7
14. Windows security tab missing when selecting more than one file or folder!!!
15. Change Permissions on Multiple Folders

Solution: I heard from Raymond Chen that this feature was dropped in Vista because they did not have time to redesign it for UAC. Now is the time to fix it. Please allow set permissions on multiple files from the GUI as this is of especially increased importance with Windows Vista and later. Windows Developer Preview does not currently address this problem.

Answer 1

I really hope Microsoft fixes this as there is also a Design Change Request pending about this for Windows 7 and Vista. Besides, the advanced permissions UI is already being re-worked for Windows 8 Developer Preview, so I hope Microsoft fixes this problem of not being able to set permissions on more than one file from the GUI.