Saving from a Program in Windows 7

[Doopri]

so i was just running a program that offered the option to right click... save as.  whenever i did so, i picked a folder i created in the program files x86 directory and got a message to the effect of "access denied."  for the life of me i couldnt figure it out, i messed with my windows defender settings, my firewall, etc and nothing.  finally i simply decided to save to my desktop in the exact same manner - and it let me.  i was then able to drag / drop it in the directory i wanted to save it to originally (albeit having to click on the "okay" box that pops up for admin approval).

likewise i can "copy" from the program, but i couldnt paste - whats going on?  im new to win 7 and im guessing this is a security / admin thing - but i dont know how to give the proper approval so i can do this in a less roundabout way.

[Doopri]

oh and another little quirk i found - i can click on "java" under programs in the control panel - and i then disable autoupdate, click apply, click okay - and when i click on java again the option to autoupdate is ALWAYS re-checked - what gives?

[Calavera]

so i was just running a program that offered the option to right click... save as.  whenever i did so, i picked a folder i created in the program files x86 directory and got a message to the effect of "access denied."  for the life of me i couldnt figure it out, i messed with my windows defender settings, my firewall, etc and nothing.  finally i simply decided to save to my desktop in the exact same manner - and it let me.  i was then able to drag / drop it in the directory i wanted to save it to originally (albeit having to click on the "okay" box that pops up for admin approval).

likewise i can "copy" from the program, but i couldnt paste - whats going on?  im new to win 7 and im guessing this is a security / admin thing - but i dont know how to give the proper approval so i can do this in a less roundabout way.

Windows is trying to tell you not to do it. The files in the 'Program Files (x86)' folder are "maintained" files that should only be written by installers, kinda like the 'Windows' directory. Windows will let you store files just about everywhere without administrator rights except the two 'Program Files' directories and the Windows directory. Linux and MacOS both treat the application directories as protected as well.

If you REALLY must store the files in Program Files for some reason (some legacy software will only write there), you just need to run the program as administrator. To do this, Right click on the application's icon, click 'Properties'. Click the 'Compatibility' tab the select 'Run as administrator' at the bottom.

oh and another little quirk i found - i can click on "java" under programs in the control panel - and i then disable autoupdate, click apply, click okay - and when i click on java again the option to autoupdate is ALWAYS re-checked - what gives?

Strange... Perhaps Oracle really wants you to keep Java updated for when they patch the security holes that get found. 

[Doopri]

ah neat good to hear about the protected status of program files (i didnt know this here - i always hated saving to root and sort of defaulted to program files for my "misc" stuff).  is it okay to just create a root\"whatever"\ file and save my stuff there instead of program files?

and ya i guess i should have taken the hint about keeping java update from the getgo

[TiLT]

ah neat good to hear about the protected status of program files (i didnt know this here - i always hated saving to root and sort of defaulted to program files for my "misc" stuff).

It's okay for a regular user to not be aware of this stuff. It's worse when developers aren't aware of it, and horrifying when they decide to write bizarre and completely unsafe "workarounds" for what they consider to be a problem in Windows. I've had to educate my share of fellow developers who haven't had the faintest idea how to cooperate with Windows instead of brute forcing every problem they come across.

is it okay to just create a root\"whatever"\ file and save my stuff there instead of program files?

Yes and no. It's "okay" in the sense that Windows will allow it, but it's not a smart thing to do and certainly not what Microsoft intended when they designed the system. Windows Vista and up are designed so that installed applications go into one of the Program Files folders (requiring administrator rights during the installation) where they'll be protected against unwanted changes (like from a virus or worm) unless the user manually confirms elevated rights. By installing applications elsewhere you forfeit this protection, leaving your applications open to all kinds of bad stuff, including user errors.

If at all possible you should try to keep your applications in Program Files and everything else in your user folder or in libraries.

[Arkon]

Doopri, I assume you are talking about Maptools?  In reading this I just realized that I always run Maptools as administrator.  Used to have issues when I didn't do this.

[Doopri]

yes i was

and while im 10000% positive (is that mathematically possible?) this was the problem, i also just said f%#$ it after reading the replies to this thread, and started saving in my user file

however im glad i asked as i did learn a few things (i remember having to run something in admin / compat mode in XP a while back, and i too totally forgot about those options in later versions of windows)