Allow Access To Save/edit Files In C Drive (System Drive)

I'm really hoping I find an answer to this question besides the one I've found on the internet a hundred times over (That's not a good idea, you shouldn't do it).

My question is: Is there a way to allow a user to create/edit files in the C drive (system drive), and in the Program Files contained there? Let's assume that this user is not only a local admin, but a domain admin as well.

The reason for this is I work for a company that does a lot of editing within these areas of Windows. We need to be able to create and edit files where they are stored. I know one way around we've found is to copy the item out of the folder, edit it, and put it back, but this is a pain in the butt.

I also know that most program need to "run as admin", so that's not the problem either. I've given this user every right and permission in the Security tab of the C drive, and had it propagate down through all files, folders, and sub-folders, and still I'm hit with an error that says "Access is Denied" or another one saying that I don't have the right privileges.

Please, if anyone knows how to change this in 7 it would be much appreciated. I know that this worked in XP, and I'm not looking for someone to tell me "this is a bad idea so don't do it", or "maybe it didn't work right in XP". I have seen enough of these.

UPDATE: I have been playing around with saving office and wordpad documents into the C drive, and into the Program files. It seems that I'm able to do both now (for some odd reason), but I still receive intermittent errors when trying to edit or copy/paste or cut/paste from one location to another.