View and manage Windows permissions with SetACL Stud

SetACL Studio is an industrial-strength free tool for managing all your Windows security permissions: files, folders, registry keys, printers, drives, network shares, services and more.

The program is aimed at sysadmins and other Windows experts, but you don’t have to know about DACLs to find it useful: there’s something here for everyone.

SetACL Studio requires installing, and initially tells you it’s a "30-day trial". It was a commercial tool, but the the beginning of the year the developer made it free for both commercial and personal use, and has provided a public license key to unlock the program: RUMH5R-PREMM7-W38EA5-QTSQZ1-1HA1A6-CTXHUQ

The interface has a single left-hand sidebar listing all your system objects, which is handy all on its own. You can expand different sections of the tree to find a folder, a Registry key, a printer and more.

Conveniently, file system and Registry browsing isn’t affected by Windows’ own security settings. Click "C:\System Volume Information" in Explorer and it’ll almost certainly get you an "Access Denied" message, but SetACL Studio displays its contents, allows browsing the contents of any subfolders, and renaming or deleting individual objects.

Clicking on any object displays its owner and various permissions. Security newbies can use this to get a basic idea why they can’t do something, experts can take it further to check the fine permission details.

SetACL Studio makes it extremely easy to change permissions and their scope: click an individual permission, a drop-down list appears and you can choose a better option.

If you know exactly what you’re doing, you might also add new permissions, change their type, reset child items to restore consistency, and more.

There’s even an "Undo" option in case you make a mistake, although beware: that may not be enough to save you in every situation. Changing system permissions can have serious consequences, and don’t even think of trying it unless you know exactly what you’re doing and the system is fully backed-up.

SetACL Studio is a free application for Windows 7 and later.