directoryinfo - C# Access to the path 'C:Documents and Settings' is denied

Question

I'm using a simple DirectoryInfo to grab all directories on the root on the C drive. However, I'm running under administrator and i'm getting the error of path access denied, below is the code that I am running. How do I resolve the issue of path access?

DirectoryInfo Dinfo = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:");
DirectoryInfo[] directories = Dinfo.GetDirectories("*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

Answer 1

On newer versions of Windows C:Document and Settings is a junction point, kind of a file system shortcut. It is not a normal directory, which means that it doesn't really work as a normal directory.

If you type in C:Document and Settings in the start->run box you will also get an access denied error, so it is nothing specific to your program.

I'm a bit confused by how this works however. I thought that the junction point would be a transparent link to the new location which is c:users but obviously not.

Edit

After looking at the duplicate question I'm less confused. The junction point really links to the new location which is c:users. However, there is an explicit deny acl for reading on the junction point to prevent anyone from using it to read things:

C:>cacls "Documents and Settings" C:Documents and Settings Everyone:(DENY)(special access:)

                               FILE_READ_DATA

                      Everyone:R
                      NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM:F
                      BUILTINAdministrators:F

C:>