Unable to remove read-only attribute for folder on Windows

Recently I ran into a little problem when trying to remove the read-only flag from a folder to be used as data store for a web application. Trying to remove the read-only attribute via the folder settings did not do the trick, as after unchecking the box, closing the settings window and re-opening it the read-only flag was set again…

After doing some research this is expected behavior, as stated in Microsoft’s KB326549.

The solution? Remove the attribute from the command line:

attrib -r +s c:\your_folder

This commands does nothing more than removing the read-only attribute and setting the system-folder attribute instead. This is the best you can do in this case – at least from what I’ve discovered.

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