Permissions query

[terrypin]

If I select any of my drives in My Computer, r-click, choose Properties, then select the Security tab, the Everyone group has no permissions checked, as you see here:
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Misc/C-Permissions.gif

Is that correct? What do other user see please? I'd understood that the highest level should by default be set for maximum access?

The same puzzle applies to My Documents (which I renamed Docs), for my own (administrator status) user account, TERRY\Terry:
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Misc/MyDocs.gif

Yet I'm confused, as I do have access to those folders and files; I can delete a music track in \My Music, for example.

Any insights or explanations (as non-technical as possible please!) woud be much appreciated.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

[BipolarBill]

You are not Everyone - you are a very specific person with specific privileges.

Please create some bogus accounts and experiment.

[terrypin]

That doesn't really tell me anything. Indeed, all the more reason for Everyone to be less restrictive than my own account, not the reverse as appears to be the case! Even 'any user' has more permissions, as these 3 lines are checked for
Users (TERRY\Users):
Read & execute
List folder contents
Read

None of this seems intuitive to me, but I would have thought that Everyone would either have been fully checked or at least had some/all of its entries greyed, not all blank.

Guesses apart, this is what I read on page 474 of Bott & Siechert's 'Microsoft Windows XP: Inside Out,' under the heading 'Working with Built-In Users & Groups':

"In addition to the standard local groups (Administrators and Users for instance), Windows XP includes a number of special identities...The most common special identity you're likely to encounter in everyday use is the Everyone group, which includes all user swho log onto the system. On a drive that's been newly converted to NTFS, the Everyone group is assigned the Full Control permission - as you would expect, this has the effect of allowing anyone who logs on to the computer to do anything with files and folders on that drive, unless further restrictions are placed on subfolders and files."

Anyone with any useful advice please?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

[BipolarBill]

Terry, don't insult moderators. It's bad politics.

Since when is "Everyone" non-intuitve? It means "no exceptions".

I suggested that you create bogus accounts or varied permission levels and experiment. Please do that and answer some of your own questions first. You can easily delete them later.

Until you do, this thread is closed due to rudeness. You can ask me to unlock the thread after you've tried your own false accounts.

[BipolarBill]

Oh - I can tell you one thing. A root directory (a drive) is the top level and rarely locked or monitored. A good administrator sets security for specific folders below that level.

Checking default root directory security is sort of a waste of time.