Permissions and Security
Setting the permissions for a file or folder allows you to permit some users to
read or change your files while restricting access to others. Problem is, if you
rely on Vista??™s defaults, anyone will be able to read your files and no one will
be able to change them.
So, before you start messing with permissions, you??™ll need to turn off Simple
File Sharing. Open Control Panel and then Folder Options, choose the
View tab, and turn off the Use Sharing Wizard option at the end of the
Advanced Settings list. Click OK when you??™re done.
Security Identifiers (SIDs)
Every user on your machine has a unique Security Identifier (SID), which is
used in conjunction with most of the features discussed in this chapter, such
as permissions and encryption, as well as some of the solutions in other chapters
in this book. For example, your personal settings in the Registry
(Chapter 3) are stored in a branch that looks something like this:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1727987266-1036259444-725315541-500
The numeric portion is your SID, and is composed of the following elements:
S-r-i-sa-xxxxxxxxxx-yyyyyyyyyy-zzzzzzzzz-uid
where S stands for security identifier, r is the revision level and is always set
to 1, i is the identifier authority, and sa-xxxxxxxxxx-yyyyyyyyyy-zzzzzzzzz is
the subauthority. Finally, uid is the user id.
For example, the identifier authority (i) can tell you something about the type
of user to which an SID corresponds:
??? S-1-0.
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