Windows 8 : Sharing files and folders (part 5) - Understanding NTFS permissions - Creating advanced security settings

On the Properties page shown in Figure 14, tap or click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Security Settings window shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16. The current security settings for the selected folder

Each permission entry is individually listed, showing you exactly which permissions have been assigned to which users and groups, called principals. To the right, you can see the reason the principals are granted the permissions they carry. These permissions have been inherited from C:\. The folder you’re working with in Figure 16 is C:\Shared-files. By default, folders in Windows 8 inherit the permissions of their parent folder. This avoids the need for an administrator to specify permissions for each folder in the system manually.

However, you might want to have permissions change on folders deeper in the hierarchy. Fortunately, that’s not difficult, and the result is that the selected folder will have permissions that are both inherited from the parent folder and set directly. In Figure 17, you can see that the folder now has additional permissions, but these permissions were not inherited.

Figure 17. Advanced Security Settings window showing a directly granted level of permissions

To add a permission directly to the selected folder from the Advanced Security Settings, tap or click the Add button. This opens the Permission Entry window shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18. Permission Entry window showing the Applies To drop-down list

In the Permissions Entry dialog box, provide the Principal name.

This is the name of the user or group to which you want to apply new or additional permissions. In Figure 18, the administrator has already selected the group named Authenticated Users. To specify a different user or group, tap or click Select A Principal and make a selection.

In the Type drop-down list, select either Allow or Deny as the permission type.

Make a selection from the Applies To drop-down list.

By default, Windows applies your new permissions settings to the current folder and to all subfolders and files according to the default inheritance rules in Windows 8. You can override this behavior by choosing a different entry from the Applies To drop-down list. Table 2 lists the available options and the impact of your selection.

Under Basic Permissions, you can choose different basic permissions for the selected principal.

If you’d like to see additional available permissions, tap or click Show Advanced Permissions.

Table 3 describes the available advanced permissions.

Select the Only Apply These Permissions To Objects And/Or Containers Within This Container check box to limit the containers to which new permissions apply.

Table 4 lists the permissions impact when this check box is selected.