Permissions to my folders and files as administrator

Good afternoon.
I am running Vista Ultimate and am having problems opening some of my
folders and files. I am a full administrator of my home computer, yet there
are certain files and folders in documents and settings that i am denied
access. I have turned off UAC and tried changing the properties of the
folders to give me access, yet it will not let me on some folders. On others
, I am actually able to change permissions to inherit the parent folder and
all objects under it. I never had this problem in XP. I could not do anything
until I found out how UAC worked, even on administrator rights. Is there
something else I am missing that is new in Vista .
Please advise
Phil