Between different user accounts, which folders are "shared" and which are personal?

Question

When I use the phrase "shared" I don't mean by a network, this is a single-PC problem. Shared means sharing between user accounts in the same PC. Is this also named "sharing" or it has another given name?

I noticed this folder C:\Users, that has subfolders named like the users accounts, that has their desktop, music, documents, downloads, etc. I imagine each one of this folders is owned by each user.

1. Which users can view and modify these folders?

2. Aside from the users folder, is all the rest shared?

3. In the C: directory, are all the folders inside shared between different users? Who owns these folders?

Answer 1

Which users can view and modify these folders?

You can find out by using the following procedure:

1. Right click the folder

2. Click "Properties"

3. Select the "Security" tab

   

   Here we can see that the user "Everyone" can "View" (read) the folder but not "Modify" it.

4. Select the "Administrators" group

   

   Here we can see that members of the "Administrators" group have full control (They can both "View" and "Modify" this folder.

You can repeat this procedure for any folder and see who has the permissions you are interested in.

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Which folders are owned by who?

To find out who owns a folder:

Option 1

1. Open Explorer and browse to the folder

2. Right click in the contents pane and choose "View" > "Details"

   

3. Right click on the "Details" header and add "Owner" to the displayed columns, then click "OK"

4. Explorer with then display the "Owner" of files and folders.

   

   

You can repeat this procedure for any folder and see who owns the folders you are interested in.

Option 2

You can find out by using the following procedure:

1. Right click the folder

2. Click "Properties"

3. Select the "Security" tab

4. Click "Advanced"

   

5. Select the "Owner" tab

   

   

   Here we can see that the owner is the "Administrators" group.

You can repeat this procedure for any folder and see who has the permissions you are interested in.

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Further Reading

• File and Folder Permissions

Answer 2

1. Administrator accounts are the only ones who can view folders at will, as when anyone wants to view another person's "User" folder, they need administrative privileges to do so.

2. All of the folders on the PC are viewable by any user unless explicitly denied privileges, obviously with the exception of the "Users" folder.

3. The "Program Files" folders and the Windows directory (or wherever Windows is installed to) can only be modified by someone with administrative access, and by default, is owned by a special user named "TrustedInstaller". The "Users" folder is owned by the system, and the rest (in general) are owned by whomever created them.

Additionally, you can find out who actually owns a folder by right clicking the folder, going to properties, clicking the "Security" tab, and hitting the "Advanced" button. Near the top, it will tell you who owns the folder/file.

Answer 3

The public folders (usually c:\Users\Public) are public folders where all users can read and write. This is the place where Microsoft expects people to put files they want to share with other users on the same machine. The public folders might also be visible on the network depending on your firewall configuration. They might also be accessible over DLNA/UPnP.

The other folders inside the Users folder are per-user but can also be accessed by members of the Administrators and Backup operators groups.

The permissions for a folder created in the root of a drive will be inherited from the drive itself and therefore depends on who formatted the drive (Windows vs external USB drive etc) and the Windows version. Usually a normal user will be allowed to create a folder there and they will become the owner and will be able to change the permissions to include other users or groups if desired. Other users can read the contents of these folders by default on newer versions of Windows.

There is a registry setting that controls who becomes the owner of a new file or folder. On server versions of Windows this is usually set so that the Administrators group becomes the owner of new objects.

Because the default security settings of a new folder can vary it is best to specifically set the permissions you want each group and/or user to have. There is a group called "Everyone" you can use if you want to emulate the public folders, it includes all users except anonymous network users.

By default, only the owner of a object can change its permissions but you should keep in mind that Administrators have the power to change the owner of any object.