Can't save game - Save folder Read Only

[Skinjack]

I'm into Windows 10 (from Windows 7) for all of 2 weeks and I've decided this program sucks big time. When I start a new game I CTD whenever I try to go into another cell or save. I spent a lot of time online trying to resolve this issue and finally hit upon a possible (probable) cause. My Documents>My Games>Skyrim Special Edition folder where I save all my games to is read only. So it won't write a new save. I've tried everything I know or could find on line, ie changing the permissions, changing where it saves the game by editing the skyrim.ini, etc. Everytime when I untick the button or change the permissions it either come back ticked or tells me I have hiberfil,pagesys,Program Files, etc open on the C drive and it can't do it. This is getting extremely frustrating. Actually, its pissing me off. Does anyone know how I can fix this? I can disable the hiberfil but how the hell do you close Program Files and other required files while the computer is running? Microsoft in their infinite genius is basically blocking me out of half my C drive because of some stupid security BS. I'm running Norton, not BitDefender or Windows Defender, so some of the resolutions I've seen don't seem to apply to me. But I also don't seem to see a spot where I can whitelist this folder in Norton, either. Sure, there is an "exclusions" listed, but no way to click on or update anything in there.

 

Any help is appreciated, because I have reloaded 600+ mods four times in the last two weeks using MO2, then Vortex, then MO2 again after I figured out how to get rid of some incessant drivers that fubar'd it, then back to Vortex because I was still having other issues with MO2. I'm pretty damn close to just chucking this whole game, but if this issue exists for Skyrim it probably is going to cause me issues with any game I play.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, any accounts I have on this computer, ie admin, user, etc all have full permissions. I don't know why this folder won't stay unticked.

[saurusmaximus]

I've never heard of this before, so I googled and it turns out that My Documents is now read-only in Windows 10 for some stupid reason. I found this thread that goes over how to fix that, if you've already tried all of this, I got nothin' else.

[anjenthedog]

I've never heard of this before, so I googled and it turns out that My Documents is now read-only in Windows 10 for some stupid reason. I found this thread that goes over how to fix that, if you've already tried all of this, I got nothin' else.

There is no "My Documents" any more. There is "Documents" though.

 

Anyway, if you examine the Security tab under properties, you'll see that SYSTEM has full full control access, meaning it can read or write to files contained in it or in its subdirectories.

 

Additionally, if you have administrative privileges to your computer (I do), you also have full control access, meaning that you can read and write to files in it or in tis subdirectories.

 

As to external users, say someone connecting to your computer, well, that's a different matter.

 

 

 

I have obviously hidden my user name for anonymity, which is why you see those red bars

 

the important thing is to note the last two entries in the popup. And btw, they also show when I view my own properties. We're just examining SYSTEM here.

 

this line of reasoning being discussed is a red herring, unless you have totally screwed up system permissions.

[Skinjack]

I looked at that link, saurusmaximus, and typed in controlled folder into my Cortana search and got a message that says:

 

Page not available

Your It administrator has limited access to some areas of this app, and the item you tried to access is not available. Contact IT helpdesk for more information.

 

Just dandy. It sounds like I do not have administrator permissions somehow, but ALL of my user accounts have admin priviledges.

 

https://imgur.com/0CswgW4

https://imgur.com/JaxfY5e

 

And that stupid tick mark is STILL there.

 

https://imgur.com/zz9TDMK

 

Am I looking at something completely wrong? I realize I'm no expert on Windows 10 having only used it for two weeks, but it shouldn't be that different from Windows 7. I think Microsoft had there heads someplace they weren't supposed to be when they came up with this idea.

[saurusmaximus]

You showed the security permissions for your My Games folder; does your main, Documents folder have the same permissions?

 

The only other thing I can think of is whitelisting SkyrimSE.exe and skse64_loader.exe because your AV or Windows is preventing it from writing to the drive?

[Skinjack]

Sorry, had to get an oil change this morning. The wife never tells me it needs one until about 1000 miles after the sticker date, so this morning she got check engine/oil lights on the way to work. Probably still expecting too much for her to remember next time.

 

Anyway, permissions for the Documents folder are the same, Read Only. Same thing happens though. Untick the Read Only box and it just reappears after you re-open properties. I don't know how Microsoft thought this was a good idea.

I use Norton Antivirus and don't see any way to whitelist a program. I can exclude the folder from my Norton scans, but that seems kind of dangerous. Who knew Windows 10 was going to be such a PITA to upgrade to for a ten year old game?

 

EDIT: I tried excluding it in Norton for the Documents folder and all its subfolders etc to no effect. Really not understanding why my permissions is not allowing this.

 

EDIT 2: So I chatted with my nephew and his son (who built this computer) and they said it appears to give full permissions as the default settings unless an administrator other than yourself is involved. So, as anjenthedog said, this is something of a red herring. Something like a "I say Read Only, but I don't really mean it" type of thing. My nephew had the same settings on his computer, as well.

 

I guess we are back to mod interference, then. Which is weird, because these mods worked in this load list on my Windows 7 computer. But then again, I started a new game when I switched to Windows 10 on this new computer, so maybe something is different when you do that. I haven't started one in a while, so I will go with that excuse for now. I'm just going to go back to the beginning and try one more time. Then I think I'm done with it if I can't get it to work. I don't mind spending some time to get things to work, but two weeks is getting a little stupid. I'm sure my wife can find things for me to do with my extra time.

[wfandrews]

I am running Windows 10 Home and my Documents folder also is marked "read only" but I just made a change to Pref.ini to one of the games I have in Documents\My Games folder and it saved the change. I have no idea how that works.

 

Windows Defender, which used to be a downloadable program called Microsoft Security Essentials, is installed in Windows 10 by default so it is running whether you know it or not. As far as I know there is no way to disable it.

 

From what you have said you have Steam installed in C:\Program Files (86}, which is where Steam is installed by default; although I thought they had changed that. If that is where you have Steam installed you might try moving it out of program files, Windows 10 has an even more robust UAC than Widows 7 and really does not like you making changes to program files.

 

You will find that Win.10 takes many decisions out of your hands which were optional in Win.7, especially when it comes to updating. The OS will update whether you like it or not.

 

You might take a look at "Windows 10 Settings for Skyrim" under the pinned topic "Helpful Links and References" by smr1957 on the SSE forum in Steam. While that guide was made primarily for those who updated to Win. 10 when it first came out it may be helpful to you; just scroll down to it.

[anjenthedog]

Since it appears my previous post is falling on deaf eyes, I just had another look at the "General" tab and the check box of read-only

 

There are three possible settings, checked, unchecked, and that little black block. Although I'm not going to chase the canonical explanation of what that black block means for you, (I'm sure a google/bing/etc search should uncover it) I suspect (can't recall exactly but am pretty sure) the little black block means "with qualification", rather than "this folder IS read-only", which is why, when we check the security tab, we see that

• system has full permissions (read/write/etc)
• the owner has full permissions (read/write/etc)
• any member of the administrator class has full permissions (read/write/etc)

again, I think you're chasing a red herring regarding permissions, unless you're just a regular user (ie do not have admin status) , since you should already have them, and if you installed the game without playing games, it has them too.

 

PS> since you said you're completely new to Windows 10 and clearly have only limited understanding of windows in general (since these sorts of things have been in Windows since the early 1990s for anyone running as admin), I would strongly advise you not to carelessly fiddle with the permissions.

[wfandrews]

I am running Windows 10 Home and my Documents folder also is marked "read only" but I just made a change to Pref.ini to one of the games I have in Documents\My Games folder and it saved the change. I have no idea how that works.

 

Windows Defender, which used to be a downloadable program called Microsoft Security Essentials, is installed in Windows 10 by default so it is running whether you know it or not. As far as I know there is no way to disable it.

 

From what you have said you have Steam installed in C:\Program Files (86}, which is where Steam is installed by default; although I thought they had changed that. If that is where you have Steam installed you might try moving it out of program files, Windows 10 has an even more robust UAC than Widows 7 and really does not like you making changes to program files.

 

You will find that Win.10 takes many decisions out of your hands which were optional in Win.7, especially when it comes to updating. The OS will update whether you like it or not.

 

You might take a look at "Windows 10 Settings for Skyrim" under the pinned topic "Helpful Links and References" by smr1957 on the SSE forum in Steam. While that guide was made primarily for those who updated to Win. 10 when it first came out it may be helpful to you; just scroll down to it.

[anjenthedog]

I am running Windows 10 Home and my Documents folder also is marked "read only" but I just made a change to Pref.ini to one of the games I have in Documents\My Games folder and it saved the change. I have no idea how that works.

 

See my explanation above. Caught me off guard too, but I'd forgotten about the third state, since I rarely screw with these settings any more

 

Windows Defender, which used to be a downloadable program called Microsoft Security Essentials, is installed in Windows 10 by default so it is running whether you know it or not. As far as I know there is no way to disable it.

 

You can disable it, but it's usually not necessary,

 

From what you have said you have Steam installed in C:\Program Files (86}, which is where Steam is installed by default; although I thought they had changed that. If that is where you have Steam installed you might try moving it out of program files, Windows 10 has an even more robust UAC than Widows 7 and really does not like you making changes to program files.

 

When I installed steam and Skyrim, they were both installed to Program Files (x86). Works just fine. Granted, I use Vortex. MO2 users seem to have some belief that they need to use a different folder, whether in actuality or just because of misguided circle-jerking.

 

You will find that Win.10 takes many decisions out of your hands which were optional in Win.7, especially when it comes to updating. The OS will update whether you like it or not.

 

If you purchase the update to pro (an extra $100 and can be done online) you can refine or even block updates until you want. It's one area I think MS went too far regarding security, but whatever. What's done is done.

 

You might take a look at "Windows 10 Settings for Skyrim" under the pinned topic "Helpful Links and References" by smr1957 on the SSE forum in Steam. While that guide was made primarily for those who updated to Win. 10 when it first came out it may be helpful to you; just scroll down to it.

 

True. Updating to an OS is different than the native OS being version "N". My laptop was originally Win 8, and it behaves somewhat differently (and a bit more sluggishly) than my newer desktop, even though, like my new one, it's Windows 10 and was updated to Pro. Some of that is due to a less beefy system (proc and memory and HD) and the fact that it's a laptop (power savings blah blah) but some is due to upgrading rather than natively being Windows 10. Same thing back when I updated my first windows computer from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, or the one after that that I updated from Windows 95 to Windows 2000, both of which went from being snappy as chit to slightly dull in comparison to machines that came with W95 or Win 2000 respectively.