I need somebody who thinks like a Unix-head (like me) to explain this to me.

Working on my Windows XP box (no Samba), sometimes I will edit a text file then save it and on attempt to save, I get err msg telling me it's a read-only file. I'm the only user. I'm not (intentionally) tinkering with the permissions anywhere. I have the impression this happens sometimes when the file is created, but permissions also seem to change spontaneously and unpredictably on existing files.

So what/how/huh resets the permissions on the files?

I would prefer for files and folders to inherit the perms of their containing folders, for the folders to allow me to write, and for files and folders to retain their assigned permissions unless I change them.

Advice welcomed (but, no, I've no intention to wipe the disk and install Linux on this particular box).

right click on the file icon, select Preferences from the drop down menu. There'll be a checkbox on the "General" tab labeled read only. Uncheck that to write enable.

You can also do it from the command line using the attrib command; attrib -R myfile

jiml8 --

Yes, I know how to set the permissons manually, but thank you for going over it.

Can you tell me how to assure that the permissions will stay as I have set them?

db

If the permissions aren't staying, then you have a security policy that is preventing them from staying. Usually this comes about either due to a misconfiguration by you or due to the action of some malware. Possibly you could have this problem if your system was formerly part of a domain and now isn't.

You need to change the security policy. I don't know how to do this in XP Home and in XP Pro it is an involved (and not at all obvious) process. You need to fire up the group policy editor and learn to use it.

You might want to start here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...p/default.mspx