PRB: Open Fails with Error #75 on Windows 95 Read-Only Shared File

• Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation, Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0
• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 4.0
• Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 6.0

SYMPTOMS

"Open For Binary" fails in Visual Basic when attempting to open a file in a shared resource on a Windows 95 computer where the share control has been set to share level access. The Open call fails with the following message:

Run-time error '75': Path/File access error.

RESOLUTION

Here are three possible solutions:

• Set the access permission on the shared resource to full control.
  
  -or-



• Use user level access. This is only possible if the computer in question is part of a Windows NT domain.
  
  -or-



• Access the file using Win32 API calls.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Reproduction of this problem requires two computers connected by a network. The server must be a Windows 95 computer. The client may be Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT.



2. On the server computer, right-click the "Neighborhood Network" icon to open the shortcut menu and then select Properties. Click the "Access Control" tab in the Network dialog box that displays. Select "Share Level Access Control" and then click OK. Your computer is then set for share level access control.
   
   NOTE: You may be prompted for a Windows disk.



3. On the server computer, create a new folder on the C: drive named Testshare. Right-click the Testshare folder to display the shortcut menu and then select Sharing. Share the folder as "Read Only" without a password. Create a file named Test.txt that contains a couple of lines of random text and then save it in the Testshare folder.



4. On the client computer, create a new Visual Basic standard exe project. Form1 is created by default.



5. Add two command button controls to Form1.



6. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1.

   
         Option Explicit
   
         ' Constants
         Private Const GENERIC_READ = &H80000000
         Private Const OPEN_EXISTING = 3
         Private Const OPEN_ALWAYS = 4
         Private Const FILE_SHARE_READ = &H1
         Private Const FILE_SHARE_WRITE = &H2
         Private Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = &H80
   
         Private Const PATH_FILE = "\\winever\testshare\test.txt"
   
         ' Functions
   
         Private Declare Function CreateFile Lib "kernel32" _
         Alias "CreateFileA" _
         (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, _
          ByVal dwShareMode As Long, ByVal lpSecurityAttributes As Long, _
          ByVal dwCreationDisposition As Long, _
          ByVal dwFlagsAndAttributes As Long, _
          ByVal hTemplateFile As Long) As Long
   
         Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" _
         (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
   
         Private Declare Function ReadFile Lib "kernel32" _
         (ByVal hFile As Long, _
          lpBuffer As Any, ByVal nNumberOfBytesToRead As Long, _
          lpNumberOfBytesRead As Long, ByVal lpOverlapped As Long) As Long
   
         Private Sub Command1_Click()
            Open PATH_FILE For Binary As #1
            Close #1 ' Run-time error '75': Path/File access error
         End Sub
   
         Private Sub Command2_Click()
            Dim hFileHandle As Long
            Dim bBuffer(10) As Byte
            Dim lResult As Long
            Dim i As Integer
   
            ' Open the file.
            ' !!! Be sure to modify PATH_FILE to your servers name!
            hFileHandle = CreateFile(PATH_FILE, GENERIC_READ, 0&, 0&, _
                          OPEN_EXISTING, 0&, 0&)
            ' Check filehandle to see if we get an error back, a value of -1
            ' indicates an error.
            MsgBox (hFileHandle)
            ' Read the first 10 bytes of the file.
            lResult = ReadFile(hFileHandle, bBuffer(0), 10, cBytesRead, 0)
            ' Write the 10 bytes to the immediate pane.
            For i = 0 To UBound(bBuffer)
               Debug.Print bBuffer(i); " ";
            Next i 
            Debug.Print
            Debug.Print StrConv(bBuffer, vbUnicode)
            ' Close the file.
            CloseHandle (hFileHandle)
         End Sub
   
         Private Sub Form_Load()
            Command1.Caption = "Show Error"
            Command2.Caption = "Workaround"
         End Sub
    




7. Modify the constant PATH_FILE to use your server computer's name.



8. Run the project and click the 'Show Error' button. This displays the following message:

   Run-time error '75': Path/File access error.

   NOTE: This only fails when the resource is read only. If you set the resource's permissions to full control, no error occurs.



9. To demonstrate the workaround run the program again and click the Workaround button. Opening the file will succeed and you will see the values of the first 10 bytes of the file printed in the debug window as well as the String equivalent.

Keywords          : kbFileIO kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbWinOS95 
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb 

Last Reviewed: June 16, 1999