File Permissions on \SYSTEM32 Affect All Subdirectories

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.51
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.51

SYMPTOMS

You install Windows NT version 3.51 and choose to convert your %systemroot% partition to Windows NT file system (NTFS). You then install Service Pack 2 and run File Manager and set the permissions on the %systemroot%\system32 directory to read-only. When you attempt to print via LPR, the print job fails.

It appears that Service Pack 3 and Service Pack 4 also exhibit this behavior. For additional information, articles Q138593 and Q128352 both address this issue further.

CAUSE

The directory ACLs are not set correctly on the \SYSTEM32 directory (and subdirectories) during Setup because of errors in WINPERMS.TXT. If you then set the permissions in File Manager on \SYSTEM32 for Everyone to Read without selecting the Replace Permissions on Subdirectories check box, the file permissions for all files in the \SYSTEM32 directory and all subdirectories are set to read-only (because they were not set correctly in the first place).

Because Everyone has only read access to the \system32\spool\printers directory, you cannot print via LPR. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q138593
   TITLE     : Unable to Print to Windows NT LPR Printers after Applying
               SP2

WORKAROUND

After the file permissions for all files in the \SYSTEM32 directory and all subdirectories are set to read-only, the ACLs are set correctly. You can change the file permissions for all files back to Full Control, and then set the file permissions for the \SYSTEM32 directory to Read without changing the file permissions for all subdirectories.