I know this sounds like the easiest question in the world but first off i don't want a response that says right click on the folder and go to properties and uncheck read only. Done that a million times every time it goes back to being checked. I am computer literate person but have never have run into a problem like this. There are no restrictions on the account, i am the admin. and i have everything shared with my laptop, so there shouldn't be this problem. I have used some of those programs that will take the read only check off and they don't work either it always reverts back to the read only. If i create a new folder it is read only and can't be changed either. If someone has any info to help me out it would be greatly appreciated. Porch

If this is a new problem then just save some time and use system restore. If it's not then try using dos to make it not a read-only file.

I'm not familiar with the dos way of changing files. If your have any info. let me know thanks. Porch

What James Smith doesn't tell you is that you can't boot to DOS with XP. You will have to use a 98 boot disk and the DOS command sequence can be complicated if you are not familiar with it

Assume that you have a file named gemini.xls on your c: drive and you want to prevent people from changing it. In DOS at the prompt you would type:

attrib +r c:gemini.xls

Later on you change your mind and decide to remove the protection you would type:

attrib -r c:gemini.xls

The file attributes are a, r, h, s. It follows that you need to know where your file is on the sytem so that you can compose the command accordingly. I am not sure whether this can be done from the DOS window within XP... I have never tried.