I don't like Vista much! But having said that I must learn.
I was looking for a file that I had created a few days back. I opened Windows Explorer and then I noticed that several folders are locked. For instance, Documents and Settings, My documents and others. I do not have a password set as I am the only user basically. When I try to acess one of those folders I get the message that that folder is not available, Acess Denied. How can I unlock these folders? I've had Vista about a month or maybe two.
You must have removed the check mark next to Hide protected operating systems files (recommended) in Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View tab in order to see those "folders" called Documents and Settings, My Documents, etc. If you notice, they have a little shortcut arrow in the icon connected with them. But these are not really "shortcuts". They are called "junction points", and they're there in order to let old XP programs that have not been updated for Vista compatibility work, because those junction points direct the program to the appropriate folder used in Vista. For example, the XP Documents and Settings folder is now the Users folder, and the My Documents folder is now called simply Documents. So forget about trying to access those locked "folders" which have the shortcut arrow. To read more about "junction points", see this article:
