Transfer Files Between Users

Question

Situation:

• Two user accounts, userA and userB
• Both accounts are on the same physical machine
• Need to move files from userA to userB
• Files can't be exposed (to the internet/other users, so can't use the Public directory)
• No admin access
• Preferably scriptable and with Windows builtins

I've tried:

• Mixture of copy and runas - either have permissions to get, or put, but never both
• Sharing a folder - requires admin credentials

This seems like a trivial problem, but searching mostly comes up with transferring between different computers or admin access is required for the method of transfer

Answer 1

Consolidating comments and discussion into an Answer:

You can have a folder on the local machine outside of the User folders, such as the C: drive root directory, that both users have access to.

There is a Security tab on the folder (right click the folder and go to Properties) that will allow you to set permissions on the folder, allowing only the users you want to have access. Remove all Users and Groups from the list, then add in only the Users you want to have access, with the "Allow" option(s) set. All other Users will be denied by default.

To do this automatically from a CLI, you can try using VBScript. The first link below shows how it can be done and the 2nd link shows a slightly different way, but with more explanation on what options are available.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/ac1bb931-c641-4784-b5f0-3fa77a9a984b/add-permissions-to-a-ntfs-folder-using-vbscript?forum=itproxpsp

https://www.symantec.com/connect/downloads/vbscript-grant-permission

I'm including the code snippet from the 2nd link here:

Dim oShell, FoldPerm, Calcds, oFSO

Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

sSysDir = oFSO.GetSpecialFolder(1).Path
If Right(sSysDir,1) <> "\" Then sSysDir = sSysDir & "\"

Calcds = sSysDir & "cacls.exe" 

'Chang The folder Name, User and Access rights in the following line of code  

FoldPerm = """" & Calcds &"""" & """C:\MyFolder""" & " /E /T /C /G " & """Power Users""" & ":C" 

oShell.Run FoldPerm, 1 ,True

I don't have a way to test this right now, but I'm assuming something listed separately on the Microsoft and Symantec sites, with good reviews on each post, would be at least a good direction to follow.

Answer 2

"No admin access" So I assume you can log in as each of the user's though?

Assuming so:

1. Log in As User A
2. Right-click on the folder you want to share access to.
3. Select the Security tab
4. Click Add
5. Type User B's name in and click find to make sure it is matched(make sure you have the local computer selected if in a domain)
6. Click OK
7. Set permissions on the user to "FULL"
8. Click OK
9. Repeat Steps 1 to 8 logging in as User B and adding User A

By doing the above the users will be able to transfer files between their folders of their own accord.

You can then have either user login and run a script that does a copy of the files directly from one folder to the other.

A simple way to script copy of the folder so that the contents in sync would be as follows (Note, depending on the windows version, the Option "/DCopy:DAT" may need to be changed to "/DCOPY:T" or removed entirely):

REM Copy User A to User B:
  Robocopy "C:\Users\UserA\Documents\Folder" "C:\Users\UserB\Documents\Folder" * /S /E /ZB /NP /IT /XJ /DCopy:DAT 

REM Copy User B to User A:
  Robocopy "C:\Users\UserB\Documents\Folder" "C:\Users\UserA\Documents\Folder" * /S /E /ZB /NP /IT /XJ /DCopy:DAT 

You can save the above in a text file named something appropriate such as "SyncUserAandB.cmd"

(Note When you save the file, you will need to select format "ALL" in the type drop-down, or notepad will add a ".txt" to the file which will be hidden when you look at it in explorer unless you turn off "hide file extensions for known types")

Then the user may run the file, or you can create a windows scheduled task as either user which will run the file at the interval of your choosing.