Excel – NTFS – allow a user to read, write and save an .xlsx file but not delete it or create new files and folders

file-permissionsmicrosoft-excel-2010microsoft-officentfsSecurity

I would like to allow a user to work with an already created Excel workbook -say A.xlsx- in a folder. It would be able to open, modify it and save it. It can not rename /delete it or other files nor create new files/folders in that folder.

How can I accomplish this? I have tried setting advanced permissions.
In folder only I disabled

Create files
Create folders
Delete subfolders and files
Delete

and in A.xlsx I disabled

Delete subfolders and files
Delete

In this way I was succesful to disable deleting and creating new files/folders but when I want to save A.xlsx by overwriting it it says 'the file was not saved' like it does not have the permission in that directory.

Best Answer

On the folder (important: set the Applies to for the access rule to This folder only), make sure the user only has these permissions:

Traverse folder / execute file
List folder / read data
Read attributes
Read extended attributes

(If you're setting a deny entry, block these: Create files, Create folders, Write attributes, Write extended attributes, Delete subfolders and files, Delete, Change permissions, Take ownership.) On the file, deny these permissions for the user:

Delete
Change permissions
Take ownership

That arrangement produces the desired results for me on Windows 10. You can use the Effective Access tab of the folder and file to make sure that you don't have other rules interfering with these.

The user will then be able to read and write that file. The user will be unable to rename the file, create new files in that folder, or delete that file. Note that if the user has the "delete" permission on other files in that folder, it will be able to delete them.

Note, of course, that since the user can write to the file, it could just delete everything in it without deleting the file itself. If you don't trust this user, keep backups.

For Excel files specifically, this doesn't do the whole job. Office programs always save the document to a temporary file, delete the original, then rename the temporary one to the real one. You can kind of get around this by fiddling the Registry as instructed by this Microsoft article. Open this key in the user's account:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\General

For Office 2013, change 14.0 to 15.0. (It's 16.0 for Office 2016.) Create a new DWORD value called EnableSimpleCopyForSaveToUNC with the data of 1. You'll also have to change the permissions on the folder to let the user Create files / write data. (But since it's on the folder only, the user won't be able to mess with anything else in it, only create new files.) That will let the user save the Excel document, but sadly, the temporary file will stick around.

Would-be commenters might think that CREATOR OWNER permissions, hardlinks, or network shares might help with that, but no.

Related Solutions

Windows – NTFS Permissions – Create Files and Folder but prevent Deletion and Modification

Through a process of trial and error, I have found that by NOT granting 'Write Attributes', this has the effect of preventing a user from modifying/deleting existing files (which is what I want). However, I would really like an explanation as to precisely why this works.

This is a function of precisely how a file modification occurs. When you modify a file, the operating system doesn't actually modify the file you're editing. It replaces the file you're editing with the copy you changed. So, essentially, a file modification takes a copy of the original file, loads it into memory (where you modify it), deletes the original file, and creates a new file with the same name in the same place. This is why NTFS Delete permissions are required to modify files - in fact, if you check the Advanced permissions on an NTFS object, there is no Modify permission - a modification is really just a delete and a write.

So, in order to create that new copy of a file, it has to write the file attributes of this new file... and, of course, writing attributes requires the Write attributes NTFS permission. So that is why you can't modify a file without having the Write attributes NTFS permission.

Specifically, thanks to a chat with Fitzroy, the NTFS file attribute that needs to be written under the user's security context (that can't be, without the Write Attributes permission), when modifying a file, but not when creating a completely new one, would be the file's LastModificationTime. This is a part of the Standard Information attribute, according to one of the Microsoft Core Team developers.

Windows – How to prevent users from deleting one folder, while still giving them modify permissions to other files and folders

I am trying to prevent users from accidentally deleting a certain folder in a parent folder, while still giving them modify permission on all other files and folders in the parent folder. But they should be also able to modify files and folders in this certain folder

Prevent Folder Deletion or inadvertent Drag and Drop with NTFS security

If you want to prevent a specific folder from being deleted or dragged and dropped elsewhere, even if it has elevated implicit permissions, you can set an explicit DENY to the FOLDER ONLY for the user account or security group which you want to prevent this action from being performed.

You can complete this folder security lock down using ICACLS with a local path (e.g C:\Path\FolderA\FolderE) or a UNC path (e.g \\server\share\FolderA\FolderE).

Example ICACLS syntax to run from an elevated command prompt

ICACLS "\\server\share\FolderA\FolderE" /deny "<UserOrGroupNameToDeny>":(DE)

Permissions Used

/deny user:permission
   Explicitly deny the specified user access rights.
   This will also remove any explicit grant of the 
   same permissions to the same user.

perm is a permission mask and can be specified in one of two forms:
   a comma-separated list in parentheses of specific rights:
         DE - delete

What this does

Running the above with those options in that syntax will set an explicit DENY to the NTFS DELETE permission on that FOLDER ONLY to that specific user account of security group.

You can confirm the deny permissions to the folder for the user account or security group by:

right-click the folder you've used in the command,
Select the Security tab,
In the Group or user name: area scroll to or select and highlight the account or group you've used in the command,
In the Permissions for Administrators area you will see the NTFS permission attributes for Allow and Deny
You'll see a check mark in the DENY column of the special permissions row for the account or group you've used in the command

Select Advanced and go to the Permissions tab
Check for the Name (or Principal) value that you used in command, for DENY in the Type field
The Permissions (or Access) field should show Delete and the Apply to (or Applies to) will show this folder only

NOTES

Please note that unchecking an ALLOW DELETE attribute is not the same as leaving that in place as-is and then creating a separate NTFS ACL rule for this same security group or user account saying to explicitly DENY the DELETE security.

This solution does NOT disallow DELETE this way

(WRONG)