False Error Messages Win10 64-bit

[WWGD]

TL;DR Summary

My Widows10 64-bit is giving me error messages that don't address the actual issue.

Hi All,
My System seems to be misidentifying problems. I was trying to unzip ('Extract' in Win10 lingo) a .csv file and I received a warning that I did not have permission to open the file. I checked the permission settings and I was not able to change permissions settings. Based in previous situations I suspected the reason for not being able to open may be a different one. I then realized the .csv file was open when I was trying to unzip it. I closed it, selected 'extract all' and the extraction went through without a problem. *** Question *** why am I getting an inaccurate error message and how can I change that so that I can address the real problem?

 

[fresh_42]

That has never been different. Windows never told us "you can't 'cause I'm f*** sit on the d*** file". If so, people would have asked for a possibility to release it. I even once had an extra program to release all occupied files.

Edit: I'm so glad I found Hotkey. No more caps lock! Ins? Gone! I even disabled NumpadIns. Windows, you will no longer overwrite my text without explicit order!

 

[WWGD]

That has never been different. Windows never told us "you can't 'cause I'm f*** sit on the d*** file". If so, people would have asked for a possibility to release it. I even once had an extra program to release all occupied files.

Edit: I'm so glad I found Hotkey. No more caps lock! Ins? Gone! I even disabled NumpadIns. Windows, you will no longer overwrite my text without explicit order!

Or using Linux?

 

[pbuk]

Or using Linux?

I am quite fond of Linux but it could hardly be credited with being devoid of unhelpful error messages!

 

[Mark44]

I then realized the .csv file was open when I was trying to unzip it.

It's difficult for developers to anticipate every action that an end user is going to take, so some error message don't seem to align with what you're doing at the time you get such a message.

I suspect that you were browsing the zip file using File Explorer, and had the .csv file open in Excel when you attempted to unzip the compressed zip file. As you learned, you got an error message (probably from Windows) that you were trying to do something to a file that "belonged" to some other process.

That's my guess...

 

[fresh_42]

I suspect that you were browsing the zip file using File Explorer, and had the .csv file open in Excel when you attempted to unzip the compressed zip file.

There is no technical necessity to block files if open. A hint would be sufficient, or the choice to release it. A simple message: "Cannot do this" is the stupidest of all possible solutions.

 

[Mark44]

*** Question *** why am I getting an inaccurate error message

In fact, I don't believe the message is inaccurate. Maybe not as helpful as it could be, but not inaccurate. Another process was using the file, so the OS wasn't going to let you make changes until that process released its hold on the file.

 

[Mark44]

There is no technical necessity to block files if open.

Sure there is. Another process could be writing to the file. Having two entities that are making changes to a file can lead to problems.

 

[fresh_42]

Sure there is. Another process could be writing to the file. Having two entities that are making changes to a file can lead to problems.

So? I know programs which allow this: reload, cancel and save, open in read-only. It is just that transparency and MS are opposites.

 

[pbuk]

FWIW the Windows Explorer zip add-in does allow extracting an archive if one of the files is open (I just tried it), but there could be all sorts of other things going on here - perhaps the OP has AutoSave on in Excel and it is trying to get a write-lock on the archive, or (as we have just found out on another thread) is using an unsupported version of Excel, or has done something weird with his permissions by installing various Windows 10 Server Edition components over his userspace edition or...

 

[WWGD]

But then again there are plenty of similar such faulty messages. Like files that are supposedly write-protected when I changed the settings and disabled 'read only'. And then pandas gives me an error message that a file I just closed does not exist after having made sure 10x that I have the right path and name for the file.

 

[fresh_42]

I assume that MicroSoft's motto is: The user shall use, he doesn't need to know.

That's fine for grandma and annoying for all others. Most errors could well be captured and dealt with interactively, but not so in the MS world. At least they abolished the Blue Screen. Some of my programs only work with administration rights and I have to actively use them for a call. Why? I am the administrator! Stupid thing. It all went south with AD.

 

[WWGD]

I assume that MicroSoft's motto is: The user shall use, he doesn't need to know.

That's fine for grandma and annoying for all others. Most errors could well be captured and dealt with interactively, but not so in the MS world. At least they abolished the Blue Screen. Some of my programs only work with administration rights and I have to actively use them for a call. Why? I am the administrator! Stupid thing. It all went south with AD.

Active Directory?

 

[fresh_42]

Yep. MicroSoft's attempt to emulate what others already had much better much earlier.

 

[DaveC426913]

Edit: I'm so glad I found Hotkey. No more caps lock! Ins? Gone! I even disabled NumpadIns. Windows, you will no longer overwrite my text without explicit order!

Wait. Wait.

WAIT!

What??

You can disable the caps lock key?

So, all my keyboards don't have to look like this?

 

[fresh_42]

Yes, I have a little script program to change keyboard settings. With
CapsLock::
Shift:
Return
I replaced it by a normal shift. Other settings are of course possible, too, e.g. redirect to Ctrl.
The real reason to install it was, that I looked for a method to type things like this
\left. \dfrac{d}{d}\right|_{}
with one Ctrl key instead of 28 keystrokes.

 

[pbuk]

Some of my programs only work with administration rights and I have to actively use them for a call. Why? I am the administrator!

Allowing a user process to silently escalate privilege would be a catastrophic security risk. For the same reason we have sudo in (most distributions of) Linux.

 

[fresh_42]

Allowing a user process to silently escalate privilege would be a catastrophic security risk. For the same reason we have sudo in (most distributions of) Linux.

Nobody talks about silently changing rights. I am a user with administration rights, but not named administrator. I just want these rights accepted without asking! I can start those programs, enter those folders, but only after that dumb question, that it will be done under administration rights.

IMO it is an example where their network structure left traces in their standalone world, which in return means that their network software isn't actually mature. They should have bought the licenses from Novell instead of creating this nonsense.

 

[pbuk]

Nobody talks about silently changing rights. I am a user with administration rights, but not named administrator. I just want these rights accepted without asking! I can start those programs, enter those folders, but only after that dumb question, that it will be done under administration rights.

So you want every process that is running on your PC to be able to do anything? Every Excel macro, every batch file, every python script that is attached to an email or downloaded in a web browser to be able to scrape the registry for password hashes and upload them to a botnet for brute forcing or a dictionary attack? Or scrape your browser's cache for session keys to hijack your online banking? Or add a keylogger to your start-up processes?

IMO it is an example where their network structure left traces in their standalone world

IMO this is not the case because current versions of Windows are based on Windows NT which was designed from the outset as multi-user. And as I said before, requiring user interaction to grant admin/root privileges to a process is a necessary feature of all operating systems whether multi-user or standalone.

 

[fresh_42]

So you want every process that is running on your PC to be able to do anything?

Sure! Silly question. Why else should I have given me admin rights? Otherwise I would use another user account! The only risk I take on this machine is that someone cracks my facebook account. So what? Have fun.

And the programs I'm speaking about only use another graphic setup, which doesn't run in fullscreen (anymore), not macros.