BleepingComputer.com: Xp External Files Are "read Only" In Vista

Hubby just got a shiny new computer, running Vista Home Premium - so far so good. His previous files were run in XP Home and saved on an external HDD using Office 2000. He uses the external drive in preference to saving to CD or DVD. The new computer has Works 8.5 loaded which didn't recognise the files saved in Office, so he installed Office 2000 as well. The problem arose when he tried to save work from the external HDD using Office 2000 in Vista. These files are all now "read only" and although it should be a simple matter to overcome, he cannot, nor can I. Logic tells us that the problem arose only because Vista is now the operating system as there was no problen with XP.

Could anyone out there offer any solutions please?

This may be the wierdest idea you get, but please bear with me.

Go into control panel and create a new user. Log out of Vista, and log in as the new user. Load office and see if you still get the issue.

I've encountered this a couple of times and it's always in the OEM version of Vista that comes pre-loaded on new machines. It happens on my HP Pavilion laptop too - in order for the manufacturer to circumvent certain blocks Vista puts in place, the default profile created when you first start up a new machines can sometimes have a really weird set of permissions - sometimes older programs can get access denied errors for the strangest reasons.

Creating a new user profile uses the default ruleset Microsoft provides for Vista, and doesn't make a profile that may have the same limitations as your OEM manufacturer might use on their own default account. Where permissions are involved, this shouldn't work - but often does.

Let me know if it works in this instance.

Strange thing really. It happened to me too...

The problem is that the user profiles are those from a domain. I cannot go and create new users just like that for a domain account.

Any ideas on a way around it?

Office 2000 is supported in Vista ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932087 ) but since it's in Extended Support there won't be fixes released for issues that may crop up.

What sort of problem is there with converting the files from read-only? Are there any error messages?

bjouana - Please start another topic with your issue. Domain issues are very different and much more complicated than those with computers that aren't connected to a domain.