File Permissions on \SYSTEM32 Affect All Subdirectories
Article ID: 137912
Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51
This article was previously published under Q137912
SYMPTOMS
You install Windows NT version 3.51 and choose to convert your %systemroot%
partition to Windows NT file system (NTFS). You then install Service Pack 2
and run File Manager and set the permissions on the %systemroot%\system32
directory to read-only. When you attempt to print via LPR, the print job
fails.
It appears that Service Pack 3 and Service Pack 4 also exhibit this
behavior. For additional information, articles
138593 and
128352 both
address this issue further.
CAUSE
The directory ACLs are not set correctly on the \SYSTEM32 directory (and
subdirectories) during Setup because of errors in WINPERMS.TXT. If you then
set the permissions in File Manager on \SYSTEM32 for Everyone to Read
without selecting the Replace Permissions on Subdirectories check box, the
file permissions for all files in the \SYSTEM32 directory and all
subdirectories are set to read-only (because they were not set correctly in
the first place).
Because Everyone has only read access to the \system32\spool\printers
directory, you cannot print via LPR. For additional information, please see
the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: 138593
TITLE : Unable to Print to Windows NT LPR Printers after Applying
SP2
WORKAROUND
After the file permissions for all files in the \SYSTEM32 directory and all
subdirectories are set to read-only, the ACLs are set correctly. You can
change the file permissions for all files back to Full Control, and then
set the file permissions for the \SYSTEM32 directory to Read without
changing the file permissions for all subdirectories.
Additional query words: prodnt LPRMON
Keywords: KB137912