Missing or No Security Tab Found in Windows XP Professional

Security tab for the properties of files or folders in Windows XP Professional is the important functionality that enable administrators and users to define security permissions and rights for particular user or group to the computer resources. By default, Windows XP Professional follows recommended setting to enable the use of simple file sharing that hide the Security tab, leaving you with only General, Sharing, Web Sharing & Customize tabs as in the Simple File Sharing UI.

So to see and unhide the Security tab, just use the following steps:

  1. Launch Windows Explorer or My Computer.
  2. Click on the Tools at the menu bar, then click on Folder Options.
  3. Click on View tab.
  4. In the Advanced Settings section at the bottom of the list, uncheck and unselect (clear the tick) on the “Use simple file sharing (Recommended)” check box.
  5. Click OK.

Security tab is available only to Administrator or users with administrative rights. So make sure you login as one. And security can only be set in an NTFS partition. If you’re still having problem to reveal or display the Security tab on files or folder properties, check out the following registry hack and set the value to 0 or simply delete the key:

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key: Software\Microsoft\windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Name: Nosecuritytab
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

If you’re using a Windows XP Professional system that is installed in a Workgroup, the Security tab is also hidden by default because in Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional, guests are forced to log on to a workgroup. Follow the instruction and information on Microsoft Knowledge Base where you need to set the value for ForceGuest registry key.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 9:14 pm and is filed under Operating Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

23 Responses to “Missing or No Security Tab Found in Windows XP Professional”

  1. Yosifof
    December 4th, 2009 19:08
    23

    Thank you, you turned my day from disaster to success!

  2. Chris
    November 23rd, 2009 09:30
    22

    Cheers mate :) saved my a$$ tonight. Thanks!

  3. The.Maverick
    November 21st, 2009 03:31
    21

    This is fantastic info. Trying to fix someone’s system and this has been invaluable. Thank you!

  4. Villermen
    November 17th, 2009 14:41
    20

    Thank you very much!
    Helped me a lot…

  5. Raikanta Sahu
    November 9th, 2009 05:09
    19

    Thank you. Your answer was precise and did the job for me.

  6. Awais
    June 10th, 2009 03:19
    18

    thanks i have found security tab thanks again

  7. Ahmed Mohiuddin
    June 3rd, 2009 05:19
    17

    Thank you …. have a great — may you be among the blessed ones..

  8. tapkep
    May 27th, 2009 20:37
    16

    On HP dc7700 desktops this can be caused by corrupt dll registration. Reregister rshx32.dll with the following command:
    regsvr32 rshx32.dll

  9. Augustus
    April 13th, 2009 09:21
    15

    Thank you. I’ve been trying to resolve a Nortel Networks Contivity VPN issue and needed to change the permissions.

  10. Gurvinder
    March 24th, 2009 08:03
    14

    It worked. Good

  11. Ben
    January 1st, 2009 08:57
    13

    I can’t see the “use simple file sharing option. Whats going on here?

  12. Big Daddy
    December 30th, 2008 14:22
    12

    Thanks so much for posting this tip! It provided the “missing piece” I needed to solve a print server problem I was having with printing from limited accounts. A workaround posted in the print server forum explained how to change the security settings to solve the problem. And thanks to this posting, I found out how to turn on the security tab so I could make the changes!

  13. Maj
    December 13th, 2008 08:01
    11

    Thank you, this helped me to fix the “Beethoven’s 9th” issue when installing Service Pack 3.

  14. arslan
    November 27th, 2008 17:13
    10

    thanks a lot sir , that really help me a lot. again thanks

  15. Fuad Ahmed
    July 25th, 2008 18:37
    9

    That was a great help. Just the needed proposition.

  16. vhincent
    July 14th, 2008 15:21
    8

    Very informative, solution is very simple. I think i been on this site before having the same problem… hmmm hope i’ll remember this time :)

  17. Skag
    January 30th, 2008 06:21
    7

    THANK YOU for spreading the knowledge. It takes a village…..

  18. Owais
    December 21st, 2007 14:46
    6

    thanks man this was easy and simple, DAMN being a computer science major, i didnt know this lol.

  19. Jacques
    August 21st, 2007 19:00
    5

    thanx man works like a bomb

  20. Francisco Almeida
    July 20th, 2007 09:39
    4

    Great info. This was the only “place” I found this easy tip, enabling the security tab. Thanks a lot!

  21. MLP
    March 26th, 2007 00:15
    3

    This was very easy to do. I wished all there features are hidden in a bad location

    thks for providing the information for security tab

  22. Enable and Display Security Tab in Windows XP Home Edition » My Digital Life
    August 3rd, 2006 00:11
    2

    [...] Unlike Microsoft Windows XP Professional where the security tabs for the folders and drives have been hidden and needs to be enable with certain tricks, Windows XP Home edition by default doesn’t have the security tabs that allows users to configure and change the permissions and rights for Windows folders and drives. To unhide, view and display the Security Tab in Windows XP Home edition operating system, Security Configuration Manager Tool needs to be used. Security Configuration Manager Tool is a tool set to configure security for a Windows NT-based or Windows 2000-based computer. SCM has other features too such as perform periodic analysis of the computer to ensure that the configuration remains intact or to make necessary changes over time. [...]

  23. O-Dawg
    August 2nd, 2006 05:03
    1

    Thanks for the info, this is just what I needed!!!!

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