Windows 7 Whats the "best" default owner for a file/folder?

[pstein]

I had a look at all my files and folders on my data partition (not win7 system partition!) and found a lot of different file and folder owners e.g.

Administrators
Peter
S-1-5-21-1078081533-1326574676-725345543-1005
....

I am not sure why one *.pdf file has a different owner than its neigbourgh *.pdf.

This is a single user computer with "Peter" as user of the group "Administrators".

What would you suggest should be the default owner for files and folders?

I think anS-1-5-21-...user is specific to a particular Win7 installation. So if I put the hard disc on another system the access might fail.

So my guess is "Administrators".

Can someone give more insight.

Thank you
Peter

 

[Josephur]

The owner is not going to matter so much as is the access levels applied to a particular file/folder. You can always override these easily.

 

[pstein]

Ok, but anyway:

I doubt that an owner like anS-1-5-21-... is bettern than "Adminsitrators" or soem "Normal".
So where does this odd owner name come from?

Can I (just for sake for safety) takeownership for Adminstrators group?

 

[Josephur]

A SID (the S-XXX....) Your seeing is due to an old username that no longer exists or a foreign username from another system. Yes Administrators group would be fine unless a specific user needs to be owner to change all permissions on a file/folder.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using WindowsForum mobile app

 

[Fixer1234]

• Are they all your files or are they legacy files from previous users? (Are you just doing disk cleanup and want to preserve the files or are they files you expect to routinely use?)
  
• If they are all your files and show different owners, it is likely because you created them while logged on as different "users" (e.g., Peter vs. Administrator). You can minimize that by sticking to one user name for routine work.
  
• How do you normally log in and use the computer for routine stuff (as "Peter")? That would be the logical owner for the files.

 

[Pauli]

The owner may well be, at least in cases of downloaded documents, like pdf or HTML, the original owner = maker of that document. It may well be a Doctor or Professor you don't know anything about... you just downloaded it... The ownership may prevent you from editing the document, if it's locked... tons of material here, since everyone wants to preserve what is one's own...

The main thing is, you have your rights, viz. administrative ones, which you can check by right clicking the file, choosing Properties > Security and, thus, you'll see what you have.

It's a jungle, really.