How to prevent users from deleting Word/Excel files in a Share?

[IsraelC from Miami]

Anyone know how to prevent users from deleting files/folders (Word/Excel
files) but still allow them to edit and save them?
I setup a test share on a Win2K3 Server. Remove all rights for all users
except for the admin group. At the NTFS security tab I grant a group Modify,
Read/execute, list, read and write permissions. Then in the advance/special
permissions tab I enable the deny delete subfolders and files right. I then
create a word doc and it allws me to create it and edit it but the temp file
dont get deleted. If an Excel file gets edited and saved we get an error the
the folder is marked as read only.
So at a high level I wnt to prevent users from deleting MS Office docs but
still edit them.
I know the users can still open then and delete the contents of the file
itself but I can live with that...any suggestions?
Thank you,

 

[Anteaus]

You can't. Word makes a copy of the file and then replaces the original on
exit, hence anything which stops deletion also stops editing.

Two alternatives which might be useful are to delete-protect folders but not
files, or to write a script which 'seals' files after they've remained
un-edited for a specified time.


"IsraelC from Miami" wrote:

> Anyone know how to prevent users from deleting files/folders (Word/Excel
> files) but still allow them to edit and save them?
> I setup a test share on a Win2K3 Server. Remove all rights for all users
> except for the admin group. At the NTFS security tab I grant a group Modify,
> Read/execute, list, read and write permissions. Then in the advance/special
> permissions tab I enable the deny delete subfolders and files right. I then
> create a word doc and it allws me to create it and edit it but the temp file
> dont get deleted. If an Excel file gets edited and saved we get an error the
> the folder is marked as read only.
> So at a high level I wnt to prevent users from deleting MS Office docs but
> still edit them.
> I know the users can still open then and delete the contents of the file
> itself but I can live with that...any suggestions?
> Thank you,
>

 

[IsraelC from Miami]

RE: How to prevent users from deleting Word/Excel files in a Share

"Anteaus" wrote:

> You can't. Word makes a copy of the file and then replaces the original on
> exit, hence anything which stops deletion also stops editing.
>
> Two alternatives which might be useful are to delete-protect folders but not
> files, or to write a script which 'seals' files after they've remained
> un-edited for a specified time.
>
>
> "IsraelC from Miami" wrote:
>
> > Anyone know how to prevent users from deleting files/folders (Word/Excel
> > files) but still allow them to edit and save them?
> > I setup a test share on a Win2K3 Server. Remove all rights for all users
> > except for the admin group. At the NTFS security tab I grant a group Modify,
> > Read/execute, list, read and write permissions. Then in the advance/special
> > permissions tab I enable the deny delete subfolders and files right. I then
> > create a word doc and it allws me to create it and edit it but the temp file
> > dont get deleted. If an Excel file gets edited and saved we get an error the
> > the folder is marked as read only.
> > So at a high level I wnt to prevent users from deleting MS Office docs but
> > still edit them.
> > I know the users can still open then and delete the contents of the file
> > itself but I can live with that...any suggestions?
> > Thank you,
> >

 

[IsraelC from Miami]

RE: How to prevent users from deleting Word/Excel files in a Share

"Anteaus" wrote:

> You can't. Word makes a copy of the file and then replaces the original on
> exit, hence anything which stops deletion also stops editing.
>
> Two alternatives which might be useful are to delete-protect folders but not
> files, or to write a script which 'seals' files after they've remained
> un-edited for a specified time.
>
>
> "IsraelC from Miami" wrote:
>
> > Anyone know how to prevent users from deleting files/folders (Word/Excel
> > files) but still allow them to edit and save them?
> > I setup a test share on a Win2K3 Server. Remove all rights for all users
> > except for the admin group. At the NTFS security tab I grant a group Modify,
> > Read/execute, list, read and write permissions. Then in the advance/special
> > permissions tab I enable the deny delete subfolders and files right. I then
> > create a word doc and it allws me to create it and edit it but the temp file
> > dont get deleted. If an Excel file gets edited and saved we get an error the
> > the folder is marked as read only.
> > So at a high level I wnt to prevent users from deleting MS Office docs but
> > still edit them.
> > I know the users can still open then and delete the contents of the file
> > itself but I can live with that...any suggestions?
> > Thank you,
> >

That's what I thought...thank you Anteaus

 

[IsraelC from Miami]

RE: How to prevent users from deleting Word/Excel files in a Share

Thank you Anteaus...that's what I though...any ideas if there re 3rd party
solutions out there?
Thanks again

"Anteaus" wrote:

> You can't. Word makes a copy of the file and then replaces the original on
> exit, hence anything which stops deletion also stops editing.
>
> Two alternatives which might be useful are to delete-protect folders but not
> files, or to write a script which 'seals' files after they've remained
> un-edited for a specified time.
>
>
> "IsraelC from Miami" wrote:
>
> > Anyone know how to prevent users from deleting files/folders (Word/Excel
> > files) but still allow them to edit and save them?
> > I setup a test share on a Win2K3 Server. Remove all rights for all users
> > except for the admin group. At the NTFS security tab I grant a group Modify,
> > Read/execute, list, read and write permissions. Then in the advance/special
> > permissions tab I enable the deny delete subfolders and files right. I then
> > create a word doc and it allws me to create it and edit it but the temp file
> > dont get deleted. If an Excel file gets edited and saved we get an error the
> > the folder is marked as read only.
> > So at a high level I wnt to prevent users from deleting MS Office docs but
> > still edit them.
> > I know the users can still open then and delete the contents of the file
> > itself but I can live with that...any suggestions?
> > Thank you,
> >

 

[John McGaw]

IsraelC from Miami wrote:
> Anyone know how to prevent users from deleting files/folders (Word/Excel
> files) but still allow them to edit and save them?
> I setup a test share on a Win2K3 Server. Remove all rights for all users
> except for the admin group. At the NTFS security tab I grant a group Modify,
> Read/execute, list, read and write permissions. Then in the advance/special
> permissions tab I enable the deny delete subfolders and files right. I then
> create a word doc and it allws me to create it and edit it but the temp file
> dont get deleted. If an Excel file gets edited and saved we get an error the
> the folder is marked as read only.
> So at a high level I wnt to prevent users from deleting MS Office docs but
> still edit them.
> I know the users can still open then and delete the contents of the file
> itself but I can live with that...any suggestions?
> Thank you,
>


Is there any requirement that they save them back to the same location and
under the same name? What happens if your requirement was met and the user
does not delete the file/folder but simply trashes all of the contents
instead -- nothing gained there from what I can see. I haven't tried it but
simply making the files read-only should force the users to save them under
a different name or in a different location protecting the originals which
other users could work with.

John McGaw
http://johnmcgaw.com