Setting read-only permissions on toolboxes

To protect toolboxes and their contents from being modified in either the Catalog window or ArcCatalog, you can set the permissions on the toolbox to read-only. Since you cannot set read permissions on individual datasets or files in the Catalog window or ArcCatalog, you must use Windows Explorer or other system utilities to set toolboxes as read-only.

Note:

Be aware that once you set the permissions on a toolbox to read-only, it can still be deleted using Windows Explorer or any other system utility. Only the Catalog window and ArcCatalog prevent deletion of read-only toolboxes.

Steps:

1. To set read-only permissions on a toolbox in a folder (a .tbx file), use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder containing the toolbox.
   1. Right-click the toolbox and click Properties.
   2. On the General tab, check the box next to Read-only.
There is no direct way to set a toolbox in a geodatabase to read-only.