I have a service account in the local administrators group that doesn't have full control of the c:\windows directory or any of the subfolders which is hampering the install of programs. Even when I log in as local administrator, I don't seem to have full control of that folder and can't change rights for some reason. I'm very new to windows 2008 and need help. Thanks in advance.

Hello Have you tried using the local Administrator account to change the permissions?Isaac Oben MCITP:EA, MCSE Microsoft Community Contributor 2011 Award (MCC-2011)

Yes I have tried that but even that won't let me do anything. No one appears to have full control of the Windows folder. Not sure where I went wrong here.

Check who is the owner of this file. Once found, use it to give your users Full Control permission. If this does not help, try to take ownership of this folder. If you success to perform that then give Full Control permissions to users you want. This Microsoft article should help. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration

"trusted installer" is the owner of the C:\windows folder. How do I log in as them?

AFAIK, trustedinstaller is an account that belongs to NT Service. So, you can not log using a such account. Try to take the ownership of the folder and give the permissions you want. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration

I took ownership with the local admin account and then permissioned it. I'm doing the install now and we'll see what happens.

Still didn't push the rights down to the c:\windows\winsxs directory so I had to take ownership again.

Hi, Generally speaking, if you logon as local administrator, the permission is enough to install programs. If you need further assistance, please let us know more information: 1. Is this Windows Server 2008 computer in a domain? 2. What program do you try to install? 3. What error message did you receive when trying to install program? You may capture a screenshot to show it.This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

There was nothing wrong with the permissions as it turned out. The guy doing the install was using a compatibility mode (2003) that didn't work well with the app. When we used xp, it worked fine. Thanks all for your help.