7
votes
Windows Controlled Folder Access
I recently enabled controlled folder access in Windows 10. It restricts programs from modifying folders in a blacklist.
I have all of the music/pictures/videos/documents/desktop folders and folders containing backups added, is there anything else I should consider adding?
I'm surprised it took so long for Microsoft to add a feature like this, it always seemed crazy to me that any program I install can modify any non-system folder on my computer without my confirmation.
Isn't that generally the case for Linux as well? As long as the executing user has permission to modify the file or directory, the program can, too. In both Windows and Linux systems, you would apply permissions manually to those files and directories to restrict access.
Yeah, oddly enough it is the same on Linux (or at least ubuntu).
Not that odd at all, honestly. It's just the foundation of filesystem permissions management. You want to be able to have multiple users and prevent them from viewing or altering files they don't own, and you also want to have groups that users can be assigned to so you can apply the same permissions to similar types of users for simplicity.
They may differ in the details, but they're based on the same concept :)
Yeah, on further thought you're right. You can use the permissions system to achieve the same effect, though it wouldn't be as easy.
Yeah, Windows definitely makes it a bit of a headache. It doesn't help that they don't like it when you try to mess with a file that's currently open elsewhere, even if it's just a background service occasionally logging to the file.
Linux makes it a breeze from the command line.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
Open ProcessExplorer, Find Handle (CTRL-F), input filename, click result, Handle - Close Handle... voila, now you can "mess" with the file. It's not ideal, but it's the best way I have found if the program using the file isn't immediately apparent. :(
I've been using the resource monitor to find them. Would've been nice to know about this before, though. Thanks!
NP and yeah, SysInternals' tools are often a lifesaver. I have been using them for almost 20 years now (back when they were still independent of MS and called Winternals). MS acquired them like 10+ years ago but still haven't integrated many of the tools in to Windows yet for some unknown reason, but at least they are keeping them available and up to date, so that's good enough for me.
I like LockHunter, it adds an item to a file's context menu that allows you to see what's locking the file and lets you kill all of the processes locking it at once. Works with folders too.