AppData permissions removed/Metro Apps crash


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The story: Shared my user folder to make file transfer easy between computers. I unshared it. After I used the context menu option "Share with > Stop sharing" it screwed up the permissions to my AppData folder resulting the Metro apps not having permission to access anything in it. I resolved the issue by setting permissions for ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES on AppData and everything under it (since I have no idea which apps had permissions to what). Is there some sort of repair tool for this? It's a recreateable bug. How do you submit that to Microsoft? Unsharing folders shouldn't kill application privileges.

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There's the App Diagnostic Tool. It should try to fix about everything that would cause store apps to not work.

 

I think the problem is probably that there are SIDs on the access list that the current OS isn't able to resolve. The %APPDATA% folder is the per-user roaming profile and is not meant to be shared.

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The tool didn't really do much of anything. I think the real solution would be to wipe out my apps and reinstall them so they can recreate their folders within AppData.

 

Actually, doing a test. That isn't a solution since it still needs ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES permissions on some set of folders I'm not aware of. The best I found was saying that it needed it on the WER folder within Local but there are more folders than that require access.

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The story: Shared my user folder to make file transfer easy between computers. I unshared it. After I used the context menu option "Share with > Stop sharing" it screwed up the permissions to my AppData folder resulting the Metro apps not having permission to access anything in it. I resolved the issue by setting permissions for ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES on AppData and everything under it (since I have no idea which apps had permissions to what). Is there some sort of repair tool for this? It's a recreateable bug. How do you submit that to Microsoft? Unsharing folders shouldn't kill application privileges.

 

I hate to say this but that's the exact reason why you use the public folders and don't share your user folder. Sorry, but that had to be said.

 

Would it help if I find the permissions set on my AppData folder for you?

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Original permissions for "SYSTEM", "Administrators" (Group) and "yourself" (your account name) all 3 set to "Full Control". This is where all (mostly) your personal settings are.

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I hate to say this but that's the exact reason why you use the public folders and don't share your user folder. Sorry, but that had to be said.

 

Would it help if I find the permissions set on my AppData folder for you?

 

If you can track down where ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES has permissions applied, that would be great.

 

Anyway, I know sharing your entire user profile even temporarily isn't the optimal solution--it was just a quick way to accomplish my task--but at the same time ceasing your sharing of a profile shouldn't remove permissions.

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If you can track down where ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES has permissions applied, that would be great.

 

Anyway, I know sharing your entire user profile even temporarily isn't the optimal solution--it was just a quick way to accomplish my task--but at the same time ceasing your sharing of a profile shouldn't remove permissions.

 

We're talking about Modern UI apps aren't we, those should be in %userdata%\AppData\Local\Packages.

 

The only permissions are for SYSTEM, My User Account and Administrators and the permissions that assigned for all of them are everything except special permissions.

 

If it's %userdata%\AppData you need permissions for then you need to add Home Users with only Special Permissions and add Special Permissions for your user account, everything else is the same as above.

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We're talking about Modern UI apps aren't we, those should be in %userdata%\AppData\Local\Packages.

 

The only permissions are for SYSTEM, My User Account and Administrators and the permissions that assigned for all of them are everything except special permissions.

 

If it's %userdata%\AppData you need permissions for then you need to add Home Users with only Special Permissions and add Special Permissions for your user account, everything else is the same as above.

 

Those are the same permission levels I have. I removed my manually added ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES from AppData. Various Metro UI apps stopped working as expected. I then granted ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES permissions only to Local\Packages and Windows\WER*. My applications seem to be working fine. I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for failures. I wonder if Local\PackagesStaging will need permissions as well.

 

*I read that Windows\WER needed these permissions in a thread on Microsoft Answers (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_store/cant-find-all-applications-packages-group/e6fd5337-a491-4eb5-9898-e139e9890ca1?page=2).

 

Addition: Internet Explorer seems to have some issues with remembering login sessions now.

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I dug around a bit more. I found that each application generates a unique SID for the files and folders it needs to access. All these SIDs got wiped out when I shared then unshared my profile. So, that's not going to be possible to fix--well it will be too much work to fix. I'll just wipe my account from this PC then set it back up. That should cause all my apps to reinstall and thus fix the problem. I'll let you know how it goes.

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As expected, problem solved. I'm glad some of my settings came across. It sucks having to reconfigure a bunch of my other applications though.

 

That does suck.. But just goes to remind everyone, if you don't know Exactly what you are doing, you shouldn't mess with System/Hidden folders and files. They are hidden away for a reason. (and yes I know you didn't *MEAN* to mess with appdata and the like, it was just caught in with the rest of the User folder)

 

 

If you need to share folders, even if not the public folder, try to always keep it on a very narrow scope. Don't share a whole userprofile, share just the exact folders you need. Or better yet, make a share on the other computer and just drop the files you want on that comp, there :)

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I always use Public Folders for sharing as that's what they're there for, then, if I want to share with a specific person I create a folder and only add the permissions needed for me and the other user and remove inherited permissions.

 

Better yet would be to use Homegroup if it's a Home network for sharing Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and Printers.

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