Preferences file could not be read : Solved. More input/suggestions requested

opera-jamf

opera-jamf

Version: 26.0.1656.24 - Opera is up to date
Update stream: Stable
System: Windows XP 32-bit
Browser identification

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/39.0.2171.65 Safari/537.36 OPR/26.0.1656.24

Paths

Install: C:\Program Files\Opera
Profile: C:\Documents and Settings\John Smith\Application Data\Opera Software\Opera Stable
Cache: C:\Documents and Settings\John Smith\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera Software\Opera Stable

Symptom: Message above during startup (Preferences file)

Resolution: Changed ownership permissions of Preferences file listed below

C:\Documents and Settings\John Smith\Application Data\Opera Software\Opera Stabl
e>dir prefer
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 8F9B-F9E3

Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\John Smith\Application Data\Opera Softwa
re\Opera Stable

11/30/2014 03:41 PM 89,908 Preferences
08/15/2014 04:21 PM 78,823 Preferences.bad
2 File(s) 168,731 bytes
0 Dir(s) 59,771,006,976 bytes free

C:\Documents and Settings\John Smith\Application Data\Opera Software\Opera Stabl
e>

Otherwise I would always get an Access Denied when I tried operations on this file

Question 1): Why would the permissions of this file get into a bad state?
Question 2): What is the ROT (Rule of Thumb) for this file's utilization? (Which copies, Where can they be located and in what order will each 'version' be 'loaded'
Question 3): What do you recommend for a recovery process?
Question 4): SpitBall/Elaborate to provide a complete 'response' ...

TIA