Why am I being asked for a password anytime I create a folder?

Question

I am using Mac OSX Lion Server that I just got on a new Mac Mini. This is my first apple desktop experience.

However, I notice that when I want to create or rename a folder, I keep getting prompted for my admin password.

Is there a way I can disable this?

Answer 1

You are prompted for an administrator password when you attempt to create or modify a file or folder for which your user account does not have permission to modify. If this is happening within your home directory, it likely means that permissions are mis-set. You could fix this by running the program Disk Utility, selecting your startup drive, and clicking on the button reading Repair Disk Permissions.

If this is happening in a system folder, this is by design, to make it more difficult to break something. While it can be overridden (the simplest way would be at the terminal to type chmod a+w -R /, but this is highly unadvised) through changing permissions, I would suggest that this is a Bad Idea.