Office documents open in Read Only mode

Sudhir,

The procedure for fix 2 shows you where & how to apply the changes to the access properties [the "Permissions"] so that you only have to do it once to set the new Permissions for all the folders in your C:\Users*YourUserName*\Documents etc folder tree.  This is a lot easier & more reliable than doing it separately for each folder.

Best of luck,

Try*3:

Thank you very much for your reply.  I will certainly set up an Administrator account. 

Meanwhile, I managed to solve the problem for at least one document by right clicking on the containing folder, selecting Properties, and allowing full access for users.  So documents in that folder now open in Word if I select them.  Presumably, I would have to do this for each and every folder.

I have printed out your solutions and will follow them.

Thank you again

There is an account called "Administrator" and it is disabled by default. 

If you had enabled it in Windows 7 then it could well be reset back to its default [disabled] by the upgrade and it would therefore not appear in the list of accounts in Control panel, User accounts or when logging on- so leave it disabled. 

Your own account is in the group called Administrators but only that one special account has the user name "Administrator".  If this is the case here then there is no account problem as such. 

The account with the user name "Administrator" is the "Built-In Admin" / "Default Admin" account.  It operates by default without the protection of UAC.  It is intended to be disabled normally but should appear automatically in Safe mode if, and only if, Windows detects that there are no other functional Admin-level accounts.  It is worth minimising its use because if it ever suffers user profile corruption then you would have to reinstall Windows to fix it [and that is a big job].

I do suggest, therefore, that you create one or two additional password-protected Admin-level accounts before doing anything else and then make Password Reset Disks for them as well as for your own account.  If you were to suffer user profile corruption in your own account then you could use one of the new Admin accounts to help you fix things [without a functional Admin-level account you would find it difficult to recover your computer from a crisis].

• • • • • • • • • • • - 

I suggest these fixes for the read-only problem.  Note that if the first or second fix solves it then there is no need to proceed any further.  .

I appreciate that fixes 1 & 2 are technical procedures that you might not normally use.  They can be done, however, even without knowing about the complexities of the permissions schemes involved.  Just read each stage and complete it before proceeding to the next.

Fix 1  Use the procedure given in the MS Knowledge Base article at Error opening Office documents after upgrading to Windows 10  This article was written for MS Office 2013. 

1.1  For MS Office 2010, check in Windows explorer for the correct folder path to use in its Workaround 1 para 1 command icacls "%programfiles%\Microsoft Office 15" /grant *S-1-15-2-1:(OI)(CI)RX  

1.2  For MS Office 2007, its Workaround 1 para 1 command icacls "%programfiles%\Microsoft Office 15" /grant *S-1-15-2-1:(OI)(CI)RX needs to be changed to

[for computers running 32 bit Windows 10]

icacls "%programfiles%\Microsoft Office" /grant *S-1-15-2-1:(OI)(CI)RX

or [for computers running 64 bit Windows 10]

icacls "%programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office" /grant *S-1-15-2-1:(OI)(CI)RX

or [for those rare cases of 64 bit MS Office 2007 in either type of Windows 10]

icacls "%programfiles%\Microsoft Office" /grant *S-1-15-2-1:(OI)(CI)RX

Fix 2.1  In preparation for this fix, disable OneDrive in Task manager, Startup tab and restart the computer for this change to take effect. 

2.2  Then use the augmented permissions resetting procedure provided by another user, an MVP for Outlook, in  Fix read-only access to Office files.

2.3  Whilst the procedure was written with Outlook in mind, it applies to write permissions for all the documents etc folders - start from its sub-heading Resetting all permissions for your user account. 

2.4  One essential component of the procedure is in its para 6 - Replace all child object permissions entries with inheritable permission entries from this object because omission of that step fatally undermines the fix being attempted. 

2.5  If you subsequently use OneDrive [by, for example, opening an Office document from a OneDrive folder], check folder permissions again as some users have reported that the problem returned when doing so.  If this happens then you can try repeating fix 2 or moving on to fix 3 below.

Fix 3.1  If the fault persists, reappears after a system restart or reappears after re-enabling OneDrive use the further procedure created by the user Figment in  \[BUG\] Windows 10 OneDrive @ Default Settings Causing Major ...   

3.2  You will see references in that thread to using the "Default" ["Built-In"] Admin account if mistakes are made during fixing with the result that "permissions" are set so badly that further remedial action is inhibited.  That's fine but it is much safer to create two additional password-protected local Admin accounts beforehand instead and to make a "password reset disk" for each of them.  By avoiding use of the Built-In admin account as much as possible, the chances of this special & irreparable account suffering user profile corruption are minimised so that it ought to remain fully functional & ready for a day when there might be no alternatives left.  Having two additional password-protected local Admin accounts ready is not just a precaution for this read-only problem, it is a precaution that all users ought to take as soon as they have installed Windows.

3.3  The standard precaution of making an up to date system image beforehand also applies.  As does booting from your Recovery drive first just to make sure that it works and that it will therefore be available to enable restoring from that system image should the need arise.

3.4  Personally, I do not agree with using the tool Figment suggests [CCleaner] even just to clean up files.  Windows has a perfectly satisfactory & safe tool for doing that [in File explorer, right-click on a drive, select properties then Disk cleanup].  CCleaner can do this job but some say it is not safe even for this limited use;  moreover, it has a Registry cleaning mode that is definitely dangerous as it can seriously & irreversibly corrupt the Registry.

Sudhir,

Nothing involved in giving your account write permissions should affect the Start button or Edge.  But I don't like apparent coincidences.

I think there are several threads & other webpages about Start menu & Edge not working.  In one, the same solution was said by users to have corrected the problems of the Start menu & Edge not working as well as several other problems [see discussion in windows 10 Forums] - the solution is to download this MS Fix.  Double-click on the file to run it.  I have been unable to find a Microsoft page describing this fix but the Windows 10 Forums discussion includes a small screenshot of what the completion dialog looks like if you want to check it.

It is possible to reinstall Windows 10 and it is possible to revert to Windows 7.  Both involve quite a bit of work.  I'd try the MS fix first if I were you.

Best of luck,

Sudhir,

The procedure for fix 2 shows you where & how to apply the changes to the access properties [the "Permissions"] so that you only have to do it once to set the new Permissions for all the folders in your C:\Users*YourUserName*\Documents etc folder tree.  This is a lot easier & more reliable than doing it separately for each folder.

Best of luck,

Hi Try*3.

I did set up another account in my wife's name.  However it only asked for her e-mail address, no password, no first name or last name.  I thought this may be because she has a hotmail account. Anyway, what follows is more important.

I followed your instructions for Fix 2.1, starting with disabling One Drive in Task Manager and then followed the instructions for resetting all permissions for my main user account folder that is, my name folder.  It went through all that with some exceptions, which were mainly to do with some program related files for photo programs, Family Tree Maker and tax software.  After that I did a re-start and that is when the problems started.  Nothing seemed to work and the hard drive light was flashing for hours and hours.  Sometime during the night it must have stopped and the computer went to sleep.

1. Start button no longer works.  I get a pop-up menu when I right click on it.
2. Microsoft Edge no longer works: when i click on it, a bright blue Edge screen comes up and in a second is gone again.  Currently, I am typing this on Firefox browser.

Windows explorer is working and I can open and edit existing documents. 

If you have any advise, I would appreciate it.  Is it possible to re-install Win10, or can I revert at all to Win7?

Thanks