All folders in all drives are set to read only on Windows XP and can't be changed

I am using windows XP and all of my folders on all drives are now read only. When I remove the read only check, it gets set back to read only. Why?

I cannot write any file from my flex application. File write protection error is shown to me by flex compiler, however it was OK until two days ago.

Now when I remove the read only check from any folder, it is set back to read only by itself, by windows or possibly a virus. I tried changes in registry as mentioned on a Microsoft site but that did not help.

Muhammad Irfan

Posted 2010-08-30T04:19:58.857

Reputation: 201

Could you give us a link to the Microsoft article you followed the instructions in? It would also be useful to know if anything has been changed from between when things were working and when they weren't -- did you install any programs, change any settings, etc? – nhinkle – 2010-08-30T06:30:17.773

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326549/ the link , i tried that.. – Muhammad Irfan – 2010-08-30T08:57:38.777

can you rollback to a previous system recovery point? – Default – 2010-08-30T10:05:21.480

If it's a virus, be careful with transferring files to another computer to salvage them – Ivo Flipse – 2010-08-30T10:43:12.927

Answers

Wow, this seems to be a big problem many users have reported! See if this KB article helps: You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

Zabba

Posted 2010-08-30T04:19:58.857

Reputation: 789

1this does not work.. i tried it before.. – Muhammad Irfan – 2010-08-30T08:57:55.903

Same problem here, and attrib did not work. I ended up reinstalling Windows :-< – hotei – 2010-09-07T16:13:13.827

Try downloading ProcessMonitor from sysinternals and add a filter with the SetBasicInformationFile. From there you should at least be able to see who is modifying the files.

To set a filter (I think it pops up to start with) click on the funnel in the menu. Then choose:

Operation is SetBasicInformationFile Include

Then click the Add

If you cannot download it to the infected computer, place it on a flash memory or equal and run it from there.

Default

Posted 2010-08-30T04:19:58.857

Reputation: 388