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New computer, Windows 10, Open Office 4.1.6 I'm trying to retrieve the files from the old computer that died. On the new computer, when I try to open a file, I sometimes get a message "currently don't have permission to access this file". Again it seems random when I get this. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for the help!

There is a thread at
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=88991
which might be helpful.

If your files have come forward from an old computer, be sure you have the same User name (including the correct capitalisation, just in case that matters - it certainly does with passwords).

RoryOF wrote:If your files have come forward from an old computer, be sure you have the same User name (including the correct capitalisation, just in case that matters - it certainly does with passwords).

It shouldn't matter. Windows uses a unique Security ID (SID) to identify the user. The SID for the user on the new computer will not be the same as the SID for the user on the old computer even if the user names are the same on both computers. If the files have been copied to the user's Documents folder on the new computer, then those copies should have inherited permissions from the Documents folder and should be accessible to the user. The error message should appear only when trying to open files still on the hard drive from the old computer since those files will have permissions defined for the old SID but not for the new SID. To fix those permissions, it may be necessary to take ownership of the files on the old hard drive and add permissions for the new user.

Thanks for the explanation, Bill. I'm ten years at least away from any detailed use of Windows, so am glad of the clarification.

Thank you for the advice. The problem is only random, so I haven't had the opportunity to see if I can resolve it! The old computer is dead, so I cannot go change anything there! I retrieved the old files via Carbonite! Have a good day!

Carbonite may have restored some of the files with explicit permissions instead of inherited permissions.

I found this in the Carbonite Knowledge Base:

All of my restored files are read-only or say access denied

It concerns files restored to a different system and basically says that the solution is to take ownership of the files and adjust the permissions.

Right click any problem file > Properties > General > Unlock.

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