I am unable to access my documents and folder settings. The message I receive says I don't have permission. I am the administrator. I have gone to properties for this folder and included myself so I can read and change things. It has done no good. Obviously, I'm missing something.
Thanks for your help.

You're possibly going to the wrong locations.

Folders like Documents & Settings and History are no longer in their previous locations. They are displayed when ‘hidden files’ are displayed but they are ‘Junctions‘, i.e. they are there for historical reasons so that old programs that would normally use them are redirected to the new Vista locations. The examples above are now in \users\username\appdata\local\microsoft\windows.

Junctions can be recognised by having a little curly up-arrow like a shortcut and cannot be accessed.