Rows of the list
Each row of the list under File System is one analysis with Name, Analysis Package, Type and Domain. The individual shares only appear on its detail page, which opens from the Name column. Search, filter and sort work like in any other list, see Lists and Filters.The header of an open analysis repeats this timestamp in its subtitle – but
only once the Overview tab has been opened at least once. Until then the
subtitle stays blank; the timestamp can still be read from the list.
Tabs of an analysis
Overview and Folder Analysis summarize the existing data, Principal
Analysis looks at it from the opposite direction, and Permission Origin
resolves one specific case.
Effective permission
A right only takes effect once both sides grant it: the file system itself (NTFS) and the share it is reached through (SMB). The Permission Origin tab states the rule under its result table:Reading the permission columns
Both permission tables carry five abbreviated columns, and Folder Analysis adds a sixth. Hovering over a column header reveals the full name:
These five are the groups Windows bundles the individual rights into. An
entry that cannot be mapped fully to any of them is marked in Spec.;
which of the thirteen individual rights actually apply then shows only in
the row’s detail panel.
Read and List differ in exactly one case: an entry carrying only the
right Traverse Folder / Execute File shows a checkmark in List and
nothing in Read, because that one right belongs to the List group, not
to Read. In every other case the two columns match.
The five groups follow different rules: an allow marks the column only when
every individual right in the group is present; a deny already marks it
once a single one is denied. The reason lies in Windows itself, which often
records only individual rights on a deny – a partial deny still removes the
full right.
A question mark in all five permission columns of a folder row in
Principal Analysis means the entry carries special permissions that
cannot be mapped onto these five groups. The individual rights show in the
detail panel of the matching row in Folder Analysis.
Inventory and explanation
While Folder Analysis and Principal Analysis each take stock from their own side, Permission Origin resolves one specific case – for that it requires two inputs: a principal and a folder.Missing either input leaves the area empty, with the message “No folder
data available for this principal.” – even when the principal is already
chosen and only the folder is missing.
A single user or a global group with direct access to a folder counts as
more conspicuous than a domain-local group: such a name stands out in the
header of Principal Analysis, the same way Everyone and orphaned
entries do.
Structure of the permission origin
NTFS Origin draws a path below the result table, from the chosen folder down to the share root: one station per level, each with its own permission entries and a Cumulative row for the standing total down to that point. A run of unchanged levels is collapsed into a single row so that a deep path stays readable. The same derivation is also drawn as a graph by the Permission Origin button above the result table; the group structure around a single principal opens instead through User & Group Structure in the header of Principal Analysis. With either the principal or the folder missing, Permission Origin stays disabled.Findings and their classification
Fourteen finding types fall into four levels – Critical, High, Warning, Notice. Where several meet on the same share, folder or principal, only the most severe counts; a share without any finding carries no marking at all.The only findings classed critical are the two Everyone entries in the file
system, regardless of direction. What is judged is the use of Everyone
itself, not the effect of the individual entry: Microsoft advises against
using Everyone in file system permissions at all – a deny on it shows the
same unclean structure as an allow.
At share level this assessment reverses: Everyone with full access on
share only counts as a warning, because the share level does not restrict
anything by itself. The actual boundary is drawn one level down, in the
file system, where the same entry is critical.
A finding text without a count in parentheses does not mean it occurs only
once – the interface simply did not supply a count for that entry.
The badge in the folder header distinguishes two cases: Broken marks a
folder below the share whose inheritance is broken; Explicitly Set marks a
folder with direct rights while its inheritance is intact. For a single row,
the detail panel shows Active or Broken under Inheritance. A share
permission (SMB) has no NTFS inheritance, so this value is absent for it.
Numbers in the Overview tab
Five values sit side by side in the Overview tab: Shares, Folders, Principals, Findings, Broken Inheritance. For three of them the subtitle underneath does not count the same thing as the headline value:
Two critical finding types with twenty occurrences each, for example, read
as “2 critical findings” – not forty.
The shares below are sorted by state, Critical first and shares without a
finding last; clicking one jumps to Folder Analysis with that share
preselected.
Below that, Top Findings lists the findings across the whole analysis,
sorted by severity first and by count on a tie. With no finding at all, this
section is left out entirely.
Quirks of the principal analysis
If the heading Orphaned is missing, no orphaned entry exists in this analysis at all – an empty category is not shown.Narrowing the filter bar to a single right does not remove shares where the
principal lacks that right; they stay visible, only dimmed. That keeps it
visible that the share exists and that this particular right is missing
there.
If a share carries a right denied at share level, its header shows Denied:
followed by the name of the right. This deny overrides every allow.