I am experiencing difficulty getting at my files. I have used the "Take Ownership" registry hacks (which open a command window) on files and/or folders, and I get a "SUCCESS" message each time; however, I still cannot access the files. I can copy the files, and the proper permissions get set on the copies ... but I have several hundred gigs of files and not enough disk space left to do that, to say nothing of having to rename the files. Strange thing is, after I copy a file, I can delete the original file ... but still not "execute" it (double-click; the app that owns that type of file opens, but reports that it can't get access to the file). I set UAC to "off" (lowest setting) and am trying the "Take Ownership" thing again to see if that makes a difference; in the meantime, has anyone else experienced this problem?

After you took ownership did you also reconfigure the Permissions and Auditing in the Advanced Security Settings?

After you took ownership did you also reconfigure the Permissions and Auditing in the Advanced Security Settings? No I didn't. I simply gave up and took the "easy" route -- copying all my files (400+ gigs) (I'm a digital photographer) from my backups into my account folders. Here's the thing: this should not happen in the first place. If it does happen, something MUST be done to make it easier for the average user to gain access to his/her files. It is far too complex, as your post points out .. probably 85+% of people will never think to do those things; they'll give up, and either fallback to XP, or ... I don't know, install some version of Linux instead? Either way, this is a problem. By the time users find out that they can't access their files in a fairly simple way, they'll have already bought the product .. so Microsoft isn't losing customers directly; unfortunately, the customer will have a negative experience, and that ain't right :) .

" Either way, this is a problem. By the time users find out that they can't access their files in a fairly simple way, they'll have already bought the product .. so Microsoft isn't losing customers directly; unfortunately, the customer will have a negative experience, and that ain't right :) . "I don't know about that. After I took possession of tne C:\ directory I went back configured Permissions (making sure I was on the Permissions list) with all the inherited permissions. I then did the same thing for the Auditing section. Rebooted (probably didn't have to) came back and was able to delete almost everything that I wanted. Of course if any of the Windows Processes orServiceswere using a particular file it couldn't be deleted so I had to click "Skip".

I am most likely having a highly similar security issue. I have tried all methods of taking ownership and setting custom permissions. All to no avail. However, I may have some extra information to add here. The drive I am having difficulty with is a storage drive that was previously mounted in a Windows XP Professional SP3 workstation to store files; no operating system files. The boot drive is separate and prepared with the Windows 7 installer, it runs just fine. The main system drive (boot drive) I did a complete cleaning prior to installing Windows 7 RC using DiskPart. The Diskpart tool, part of Server 2003 resource kit tools, is a very powerful disk management Utility. Drives prepared with this program show as uninitialized; I strongly recommend such a cleaning to remove all possible problems especially when changing OS technologies or when reinstalling a system after a rootkit-that-survives-a-format infection). I have no issues with security on the boot drive. Before you suggest various solutions, know that I am an IT Consultant and I have 27 years experience. I am looking for specific Windows 7 issues and hotfixes pertaining precisely to this issue. I have already applied the Root Ownership hotfix from KB970789; it did not resolve this issue on the storage drive. The second drive was NOT formatted, or cleaned prior to mounting in the Windows 7 system. That drive contains over a million documents and other information. I specifically mounted it to test the Libraries functions and the efficiency of the indexing system in Windows 7. I would really appreciate some ideas in this matter. I should be able to help others with problems in return. I strongly suggest that you clean your boot disks properly when you install a new OS technology. Sometimes there are markers and partitioning information that may have issues with a new OS.Computer software consultant for 27 years

I have tried all methods of taking ownership and setting custom permissions. I know you didn't want to hear obvious answers, but it sounds familiar to a problem I was having. Check the sharing options. Go to a folder on the external drive, Right click > sharing > specific people. Delete the unknown contacts and then share the folder.

I fully AGREE! The "user" or "Administrator" of the OS should have FULL control over EVERYTHING on their computer by just setting one switch instead of going though all this "Ownership", "Priviledges" and "Auditing" stuff. I do understand that the average uses has no need or desire to have full access to everything but a personal choice is prefered , in my opinion. I like to have the control of deleting or changing everything or anything I want. If I mess up, then it is my problem. This needs to beaddressed in Windows 7.

Hi. I have same problem but with mi corporative account with administrative rights as the local user on my D: partition. This problem was present two days after include my Portatile on the corporative network. I will change permissions, propietary, checkout of the Directoy, ingres again without results.

Hellothis is for everybody who has sometimes rights problem.I see that Since i installed Windows 7, some folders have been "Saved".So that nobody can access them, but to subfolders.Think this is a new "Security"-Feature (not a bug ...) to avoid Programs to gain information of a computer because of some standards.Here just what i saw because it't maybe usefull:Go to the Properties of the folder that you have problems (maybe also a file or something)Check if there is a user called "Everyone" with some Special Rights.If yes, there could be the problem...Sometimes Windows 7 put following rule:Everyone Deny to List Folder/Read DataJust delete this Everyone Deny, press three times ok and that's it.Just a little list of Folders that had the permission set to this strange Everyone deny:%Systemroot%\Documents and Settings%Systemroot%\Users\%username%\Local SettingsI think that with this security another programm cannot spoof in local Settings what for programs you use... because he need to know the path below.I AGREE absolutely that a Administrators should have full control of the data but not the "User". But normal on a Windows 7 you have the rights you need.Regards:Dani

Well I am glad it is not just me!I have a situation whereI have installed XP Mode and completed a system restore because of some issues with USB drivers. Unfortunately, the installer left one folder in the Program Files with three files.After the system restore, the only owner is the SYSTEM and all attempt to take ownershop with the TAKEOWN command have been fruitless. I cannot delete these files, add permissions, take ownership or virtually anything to these files.As a last resort, I have managed to CUT them and move them to a mapped drive on another PC and then delete them.Quite frustrating to say the least!I am completing some Win 7 Logo testing and have other little strange things like this happen like the program installing but not applying permissions to the current (Administrator) user.I will document fully and post the results when I get them.Cheers Dave

Seems like you had a problem with the Harddisk, sometimes when my disk had corrupted files, i couldn't change the security settings, sometimes this tab was also missing.Like this i think after a reboot he corrected some problems on the drive... maybe.Now it's working, coool :D

Hi All. I am looking for a solution to a similar issue. Here's my story: My hard disk had two partitions - one had vista installed on it (been using it for a year), and on the other I installed WIN7RC1. I also had a second hard disk called MEDIA which had all my, er..., media. I had a dual boot environment in which I predominantly used WIN7 for a while and then decided to move back to Vista - still keeping the dual boot setup. When I moved back to VISTA I noticed a couple of changes: 1. All files and folders in my MEDIA drive had only "READ ONLY" attribute set. Tried various things including logging in as administrator and enabling "Full Control" access to all "Users". Some folders were set right, but on just one, the "READ ONLY" attribute just wouldn't go away - call this the rogue folder. Take ownership(recursive) too reports success. 2. I noticed a new account (Just the SID, no user name) that show up in the "Group or user names" box under "Security" context menu of the rogue folder. This SID corresponds to the account created under WIN7 Has anyone made similar observations? All "well behaved" folders show the following in their "Security->Group or user names" box: authenticated users system administrators users The rogue folder shows (conrad is the sole account on both Vista and WIN7): system unknown (S-1-5-21-YYYYYYYYY...) administrators conrad Why is the user list looking so different? Also, note that under Vista and WIN7 I had created an user accounts with the same name ("conrad"). Thanks in advance, Conrad

Athnetius, that seems to be the exact problem I was describing in my earlier post on this topic. I presume you have had the "media" folder shared at some point. Easy to fix. First take ownership of the 'media' folder, remembering to check the box to also replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Give your user "Full control" access to the folder. Then right click the 'media' folder and select 'share with' and select 'specific people'. Remove the unknown contact, and make sure you are shown as the owner, and everyone has read only permission, and then click share.

Thanks Stickywulf. I took ownership of the folder and gave myself full control. The process completed successfully - The properties dialog shows the right ownership (my_pc_name\my_user_name) I didn't need to share the folder - I can't figure why you suggested that. Now, it looks like I do have complete permissions for all files. Folders still seem to have the read only flag set, but I guess there is some valid explanation - I can live that. -Conrad

Well, I have tried the sharing suggestion, and to no avail.I just thought I would post a short update.I also have noticed another folder that I cannot delete, called Window.old, which I find strange since I did a fresh installation. Whatever I try, it will not go away. I believe this to be related to my previous issue. I do hope that Microsoft has assigned someone who actually reads these forum posts and makes note or logs them for review.Computer software consultant for 27 years

yes, this tends to happen if you dual boot with a system that does not take ownershipes, i.e you dualboot with xp or lower, with xp installed first, boot in xp, try and open the file, if it opens, your on the right track for taking the ownership, if you CAN open it, :select all the files, riught click, make sure its NOT READ ONLY, then set to share folders, if it asks to move them, click NOif you CANT open it, then boot back into windows 7, right click the files, click sercurty, then something along the lines off "permissions" (sorry, my windows 7 is down for a while, so i cant check to see where it is )remove everyone as permissionsm then click add, then click advance, then click add/new, then select all, give everything permission, then reset, you shuold now be able to open/ successfully take permission of the files :)

kk, how about making the folder only editable by you, and nnot by system?.. this can be done, except if its windows files or a file that the system is using/needs, it will take the ownership again,try it, denied acces to system and also stop it archiving, indexing and compressing? Jimmy: its looks like someone did there research? how you know my name? o.O ......

I'll consider it: However, given that the op system is dropping bombs at the root level, I really doubt (especially since bugs don't even follow rules even if there were one) it needs system access permission to do it. It drops a bomb from within an "up" operating system, via "triggers" or sometimes without any obvious trigger right down to the ultimate places where all fixes "above" it mean nothing: The root system. As to your name, wildly lucky guess. Unlucky at Op systems, lucky at name guessing, I suppose.

UPDATE: If you are an x32 user for whom the hotfix doesn't restore access to your drives, or an x64 user who gets completely locked out of their drives (repeatedly), 100.000000000% you might consider twittering @BrandonLive.Here's what I know: 1) I've been working with PCs since 1976, and I'm d*** sure that I'm capable of understanding when I'm TOTALLY locked out of my own drives, and when the drives will totally lock me out again after I've spent !@#$#@#$ time manually restoring access.2) I know that there appears to be no help for those in 7100+ x64 who get totally and randomly locked out of their own drives, with all their permissions reset. I know that reasonable google searches demonstrate that MS has not acknowledged the issue.3) I know that Vista was a complete debacle not necessarily because the op system sucked the whole time, but because the perception that it sucked. I further know that only at the very end did MS even start to grasp the concept of how real world users talk about an op system when they perceive it sucks, and that real world op system end users generally have an understanding of op systems one level above my pets.4) I know that whether he is or not, by his "tweets" which want to address anything -but- the fact that 7100++ is locking SOME users totally out of their drives, repeatedly, that @BrandonLive APPEARS to be an MS employee who demonstrates the living embodyment of why Vista failed (See 3).5) I know d*** well how the press works. I know that if MS and/or its employees a) have more mature builds that suck FAR worse than previous builds; and b) pretend that all problems with the op system are "end user failures" and are problems with the user, and it's the user who has the problem, that the problem will absolutely demonstrate itself most obviously in MS' bottom line, when Win7 fails as badly as Vista, because MS does exactly the same thing with the op system release that they did with Vista, but expects a different result.I know that if MSAPPEARS to 7100+ probs like @BrandonLive APPEARS to, that MS is "pulling a chrysler/general motors," i.e., "we build what we want, we think it's great, and we don't give rat's assets about what you think."6) I know that I now have semi-permanent access to my drives, that MS was ZERO help in resolving the problem. I know that "throwing things against the wall" worked. I know that most of my "fixes" were TOTALLY unrelated to the problem, as well as many if not most of my theories what the problem is. I know that bad press against MS and Win7 led me to roads of various things to throw against the wall at this catastrophic 7100 problem, and that one or more of the things that I threw against the wall has kept the problem at bay.But once again, here's what I know. I know that I don't want to be denied 100.00% access to my drives, over and over again despite manually fixing the problem. I know that other users don't want the same. I know that the average user, with maybe 10% the experience with PCs as I, will RUSH to tell 20 other potential users that the op system sucks, whether it does or not, the first time they get totally locked out of every file they have on their computer; or experience anything anything remotely as catastrophic in final release.7) In sum, what I know is that my ONLY apparent contact from MS on my catastrophic problem with 7100 has been basically "shut up, Win7 has no problem, you're the problem in bad mouthing the perfect Windows 7 Release Candidate. All the problems are in your head, and with you." I know that basically being told I'm the problem did nothing to restore ANY access to my drives or files.MS tried"Fix the End-User instead of the op system"before: It was called "Vista." It didn't work out terribly well for the company. So perhaps they might want to try taking some of the efforts to get bad-mouthers of Win7 who get hit with catastrophic failures toward, oh, I dunno, acknowledging and fixing the operating system instead of "fixing the end-user."So in the end, if this thread or this post magically disappear after you've seen/read/followed them, please make that a PRIMARY consideration on how MS is going to handle actual Win7 potentially catastrophic problems upon actual release,and whether you should spend a real dollar on it upon release.

Small update.The hotfix released by Windows Update on the x86 platform, does not work, period. The bug is still there, and it will not go away. The only way to remove it is to wipe COMPLETELY the data from the affectedvolumes. The ONLY way to sucessfully prepare a drive, not a partition, or a volume, but a drive, is through Diskpart, using another older OS, before you install windows 7.1) Mount the drive on a Windows server 2003, or XP Professional with the Server 2003 Tools installed, and utilize the Diskpart tool to thouroughly clean the affected drive. WARNING: the "clean" command will effectively remove absolutely any semblence of data, partitions, and wolumes across en ENTIRE diskin less than 5 seconds!!2) Run Diskpart a) open Windows Disk MAnagement and note CAREFULLY the drive you have connected to the system and see which disk number it is. Yes, you may use an external USB method for mounting to use this method. b) Run Diskpart. c) enter the following commands: i) list disk(note the disk that has the '*' next to the name and note the number of the disk you wish to clean. ii) select #(type the number of the disk you wish to clean. Please make sure you have not selected the wrong disk) iii) list disk(run the list command again and verify that you have selected the correct volume, be 500%certain.. LOL) iii) clean(please be certain that you have selected the correct disk before youproceed) iv) exit(in Disk Management you see that the disk is so clean, it is not even initialized yet)3) Remove the disk physically from the XP Pro or Win 2003 Server system and reconnect it into the Windows 7 machine4) Install Windows 7 and you will have no problems with the root drive anymore. Try to avoid using this system on a network with older technologies from Microsoft.A Word of warning, any drives that you connect (how you connect seems randomly affected for some reason)that already have data from other systems, are likely to have the Root Security Bug reappear again after one reboot with the drive connected in a Windows 7 environment. I strongly advise that you keep windows 7 away from other machines on a network until this issue is resolved sucessfully. Ifyou have no data to worry about on your Win 7test system, then go ahead and play with netowrking. You will , or should, be fine with any data created originaly within the Win 7 system, or with data accessed and downloded via FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS network connections. I have not tested drive images transferred from other systems. I have not tested folders transferred from a Vista or XP system via VPN connections, or over higher than 128bit connections. Rule nothing out, and suspect everything related to logon, keys, user verification, and any Windows 7 level technology that deals with file or volume permissions and authenticationuntil this issue has been resolved.IT Consultant for 27 years Currently work in the field 5 days out of 7, 12 hours a day minimum. I like my work. "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Update: Ok, the bug is definitely related to the new UAC system in Windows 7. After extensive testing and experimentation, I have noticed that the symptoms completely vanish if the UAC is completely disabled. Any other setting and the mysterious "bug" comes back. I was able to completely do what I wanted to do, and view and change any settings edit permissions and change ownership and auditing with the UAC completely disabled. The changes remained permanent and effective. The minute I enabled, even slightly, the UAC then ACCESS DENIED and the inability to view properties or see effective changes reared its ugly head once again. I have not had issues with this bug for isolated Windows 7 systems. No issues with Windows 7 systems installed on properly cleaned drives and not linked to other older Microsoft operating systems via a local network. Once you change (pollute?) your installation by adding another drive from a another OS, dual boot with another OS, or start to mess around with locally networked systems with older versions of Windows, the Windows 7 Permissions Bug has a strong chance of coming back. No evidence of the bug with networked Apple computers, or Linux computers. If you completely disable UAC, unless you have already changed too many things, the Windows 7 Permissions Bug should disappear.IT Consultant for 27 years Currently work in the field 5 days out of 7, 12 hours a day minimum. I like my work. "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kieseyhow,Thanks for all your testing and input. I only discovered the problem when I wanted to run scanpst.exein an effort toaddress a minor problem with Outlook. I read this thread, turned off UAC, took ownership and it worked. I have not turned UAC back on and will take your word for the outcome. You said:"Once you change (pollute?) your installation by adding another drive from a another OS, dual boot with another OS, or start to mess around with locally networked systems with older versions of Windows, the Windows 7 Permissions Bug has a strong chance of coming back."Most installations will run into one or more of the configurations you describe. Most often "locally networked systems ith older versions of Windows" I am dual booting with Vista and have 2 XP computers on the local network. I will watch the thread and hope someone advises if a fix becomes available.Thanks again for all your efforts and information.Earon

I just noticed this, after looking in the UAC account help:"If you select this setting, you'll need to restart the computer to complete the process of turning off UAC. Once UAC is off, people that log on as administrator will always have the permissions of an administrator."This is the last part of the spiel that comes under the 'do not notify' setting of the UAC, along with the parts to remind you to restart to apply all the effects etc.Seems silly to me that the UAC actually prevents people who are logged on as the administrator from having the permissions of the administrator at all times, and yet apparently that's what it does.I've just disabled the UAC on my RC (7100) copy, but I haven't restarted yet. If it solves the 'you need permissions from yourself' glitch (I can only assume this is a glitch, what idiot would program it that way in the first place?) that I had trying to delete stuff in the "program files" folders then I'll write it up here.UPDATE:No luck - absolutely no change whatsoever :(Strangely, I was looking at microsoft games as an example, andeverything is deletable except the .jpg image. Seems odd that only the image is protected from deletion - any ideas on that?

Does anyone know if Mac OSX will run on a non-Apple PC? And how to do it? I'm fed up at last with windows 7 the retail version not allowing me to access my PC! Too many files and folders I'm not allowed to use!

Hello Of course it's possible, just look arround Google :P But this is a Microsoft board, please go to some apple boards. If you have really problem with accessing Files do the following: Right click => Properties => Security => Advanced => Owner => Take Ownership Whe you have done that, you should be able to put your username in the rights list ;-) Be sure you not only put the Administrators Group on the rights, this will not work, just put also your user or the users group ;-) Regards: Daniel

@ dani_wb How can you possibly delude yourself that it's as simple as that given all of the above posts? And even if that does work consistently (for you), do you really believe that it's a viable method to change the file permissions of every folder you want to access? One at a time? As for the OS X thing (if it doesn't work), you could always download Ubuntu instead (9.1 is, I believe, the current one (at time of writing)). I won't go so far as to provide a link, (although for all the response our questions are generating, I don't think M$ takes the least amount of notice of anything written here.) But I would always recommend having an alternative to Windows, just in case you get annoyed with it or if there's a mass virus attack or something random. It's probably worth learning how to use a linux distro for that eventuality. (I also have deep suspicions that in the light of M$ current generation of OSs, that should the general public realize there are appropriate alternatives, the empire would crumble :p) To lighter topics: Anyone resolved this issue at all?

Maybe there is help at hand! [url=http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/windows-7-sp1-service-pack,news-32181.html]Windows 7 SP1[/url] Not for a while yet, and unfortunately it comes out after my RC starts shutting down every 2 hours :S.

zsolmanz, As soon as I got notice of your post above, the link was disabled. What was it about? @ dani_wb, That advice doesn't work with many things. Plus, even if it did, it would still take months to achieve with my 6+ Terabytes of data.

It was just a link to a Tom's Hardware news bulletin about Windows 7 SP1, which should be out about 1/2 way through next year. Nothing special.

I agree.....I have a brand new HP PC with Windows 7 installed. It worked fine for two weeks and then suddenly I am getting all kinds of file permission errors and I cannot access many of MY FILES. Files that I could access before suddenly are a problem. There were five automatic Windows updates on 11/11/09 on my PC prior to the problem. Don't know if they can be contributing to my problem. BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS......it won't take me long to WISH I HAD MY OLD PC WITH WINDOWS XP BACK UP AND RUNNING!

My sister bought a brand-spanking-new HP laptop with Windows 7 installed. I can't even tranfer the files over from my laptop using Vista and so far, the help on the internet has been so tortured in trying to deal with a simple file transfer that I advised her to return it straight-away and continue to rely on her MacBook Pro. Even Vista is better than this. Nice one, Bill. You've really impressed the ____ out of me again.

Stupid comment and not the same idea that most of the customers have.... even Linux users(some) is looking now win7 with other eyes...those who complaint too much about the security permissions must be sum kinda Lame looking for burling win7 security facilities...Regards,RR

Thanks for that comment, Ddos_Evader. It's refreshing to have a different point of view, anditcontributed so muchto the thread.Renisans, is that a permissions problem? Or a networking problem?Because I've not had any trouble with networking (at least notdirectlybetween 2 Windows 7 installations,or my home network + internet).Have you tried setting up shared folders, then copying things into them so that they're available to the Windows 7 Laptop? I suppose you don't have the HP latptop any more, but maybe that would help in future or with your Vista 'top..I'll assume you've tried everything there is easily available on the web so I can't help you much more. Does Vista have a 'homegroup' setting for the network it's attached to? Homegroup basically makes the computers in the network trusted, so that Windows 7 doesn't cr*p itself when it get's approached by any of them. It's an OS with xenophobia :SThe only other suggestion I can think of off the top of my head is to nab a portable HDD off a mate and use that to copy files to and from eachlaptop. Sorry I can't be more helpful :(Or to use an online file storage site in the same way. I don't know any examples - I don't use them.-zsolmanz

try this outopen an elevated command prompt** ENSURE that you are in the correct users directory ** Run the following command:attrib r s h /S /D This will remove the read-only, system, and hidden tags from all folders and subfolders in the directory. Note that this must be performed from the command line because the same operation fails by design from the explorer GUI as described here:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/326549 also use icacls to check your file's permission and paste it here for checking. thanks.

Ive been doing backups for the last year using xcopy in a bat file under Windows 7 RC without problems. I put on Win7 Home Premium and now the copy dies after a few minutes with a denied access message. If I simply drag and drop or edit/copy edit/past the directory it copies without problems. I found a PDF file I couldnt openaccess denied message, and right clicked it. I clicked share with/specific people and found myself as owner and an account names unknown contact which had read/write privileges. If I clicked on properties/security there was an unidentified starting with S-1-5-21 etc. I went back and deleted the unknown contact and was able to open the pdf file successfully. Take ownership didnt change the equation. Closing and opening the pdf file caused the S-1-5 etc guy to disappear. Does anyone have any idea whats going on here? How do these funky accounts/permissions get set?

i have an issue where a friend of mine experimented with my Windows 7 RC and changed to permissions. apperantly all the files on the C: drive are in accessable except for the Libraries (e.g. music, videos, my documents)...and desktop. Some programs dont respond and any action that requires permission in in-accessable. this includes even changing date and time.....i cant change ownership because the under the propertiess for the C: drive , i'm prompted with the "access denied/ no permission" prompt. i can copy files but not delete.Itried the command prompt "attrib r s h /S /D" but all lines said access denied....i also cant install or modify ANY programs and system restore isnt alowing a restore.can some one help...Please

Ok ppl here is looking for 777 permissions which is not designed for windows 7 IMHO....i doubt ppl here also is having problems in deleting folders or files in the sub! that is the easiest thing ever after u take ownership and attribute all the permissions for users!!! u might as well check if theres any user such as everyone set to deny in special permissions as mentioned above....ive done that several times in many dif folders ,root folders an all that stuff never have problems,obviously i did try all that for testing purposes then right after switch back to the standards...there isa security policy in GPO that u set to " elevate without prompting" just do that and u change the uac behaviour ,not somehing that i would advised but if u want to leave it all wide opened and accessible (Like XP)just do it,up to Yous...btw 777 permissions is a practice questioned by many security experts ,even if u isolate some root folders then apply 777 permissions even though its not something recommended and has some controversi(dunno how to spell that,lazy to google it)so before crapping the S hit outta UAC,rethink 10times and look for other resources around internet to see the real deal with that!!!!windows 7 was designed to re educate win users to avoid certain practices that leaded older windows versions to s uck in security stuff IMHO...so whats the advantage of creating a new OS only with different look but all the rest the same old S hit ? whats the point of that?i dont see any reasons for someone complaints bout too much security prompts? its all about double clicking takes mostly bout 10 secs for 10 clicks which is not the cenario here,but just as an example...Obviously if u trying to do that in the standard user account u ll have to input username and PW...anyways thats my opinion and i can assure that its possible take ownership of a folder then delete it,now im not so sure of that by trying it remotly in a secured enviroument in which u are not a member of administrators group..All my best,RR

also try this kb with the solution provided in it http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320081

i'm at a loss here. i cant access any programs. downloaded programs wont openandgive the report of somethinglike "a problem occured with (filename)" .....and under "my computer" i cant open the c: drive at all. as mentioned before. i cant take ownership since these buttons deny me access to do that. Is there any solution?

well then in this case(which i would call worst case cenario) ,go to a gun store,grab a shotgun and breath 10 times then pull the trigger!!LMFAO im joking dude ,serious thats like something i wouldnt want to go through,im talking about ur situation,weird that u cant even press the buttons???anyways w8 for the Experts here advise u and sorry for the useless post but i was just craking up here and felt like posting just for fun,that just came outta off the top of my head but not that im happy with ur disgrace =/Kind regards,RR

NeonStream: Your problem is far beyond what was being discussed here. You've got some damage done that really requires a fresh install of windows. Too many things can cause these effects you're experiencing. But, I believe a clean install should hekp you best. As for the original "permissions" problem we started with, this is a defect in Vista and 7 that M$ refuses to acknowledge or correct. They should've made a Windows Ultimate Closed/Home version and a Windows Ultimate Enhanced Security version for Home network users, who don't need all this permissions c rap, and Public network users, who need more security. M$ has bollocksed-up their OS with their paranoia and we're paying for it. Ddos_Evader: You haven't really helped the situation. You're emails are almost unintelligible, and the gist I get from them is that you don't understand what the discussion is about. What is "777 permissions?" What has it to do with this?

please run sfc /scannow to check filesystemhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

"You haven't really helped the situation. You're emails are almost unintelligible, and the gist I get from them is that you don't understand what the discussion is about. What is "777 permissions?" What has it to do with this"Ok then u should read the books,777 permission means FULL CONTROL to all users or same rights for all users,is that clear enuff 4 ya?haveyou read this : "there isa security policy in GPO that u set to " elevate without prompting" just do that and u change the uac behaviour ,not somehing that i would advised but if u want to leave it all wide opened and accessible (Like XP)just do it,up to Yous..." it aint english at all?Note : not somehing that i would advise but if u want to leave it all wide opened and accessible (Like XP)just do it,up to Yous- Personal toughts and irrelevant for those who are not "Paranoia",maybe not awared of todays internet threats...can call me geek."i doubt ppl here also is having problems in deleting folders or files in the sub! that is the easiest thing ever after u take ownership and attribute all the permissions for users!!! u might as well check if theres any user such as everyone set to deny in special permissions as mentioned above " - isnt this so simple to understand?now allowing multiple changes for multiple folders u would have to go for a custom script i've read here in this forum somewhere that i cant point out for u now and sorry for that...the only thing that irritates me is ppl crapping the skit outta UAC ,that just sounds Dumb for me 4 reals and it its Dumb indeed, as i see some videos in UT and i laugh my Ends off that ppl is advising to turn off UAC and they feel so KOOL HeHe..anyways everyone is free to choose whatever they want,i just cant bear ppl talkin skit bout UAC,if you u dun like ,well just turn it off completely then but dun come with stupid comments which they make absolutely no sense at all and it hurts my ears/eyes so deeply!All my best,RR

It's obvious now that you haven't a clue what this discussion is about. It started in May of this year and we've tried ALL the available solutions (including the"777"). UAC is not the problem here. The probem is in a system which automatically refuses to let the owner use their own computer. UAC is fine, as long as WE users have control. Tell me how to delete or move MY files and folders, that I created, without Vista/7 deciding on a whim to allow or deny me access, and then you will have solved the problem. You won't be able to do that because it is in the coding of the OS. These arbitrary denials of service are due to sloppy coding and a philosophy of Father Knows Best at M$. Cheers! P.S. And still your juvenile jargon serves no purpose here. We are trying to do something. No one has ever liked a smart-alecky child. Or to put in terms you might understand: GrUp. Is that clear enuff 4 ya?

yeah i know ,maybe u are juvenile and dunno that,i understand all ur text with no sweats buddy,got that dizzle?the thing is it never happend to me ,denying without prompting unless i set to deny for the users in admin group...its kind of weird that maybe ur misconfiguration is triggering that,how could that possibily happpen only with a few ppl? aint that something particular?maybe u half age of me and u calling me child and thats ok i can live with that,ppl with limited mind tend to appeal in that way so they relieve theyr fraustration coz they dun have a plausible argument and i do understand that too!!!even with "777" dunno why the quotes but thats ok,u cantdelete ur files then u shoulddo a fresh install coz ur system may be currupted,and u may also try CALCS tosee if ur problem gets solved!!!"We are trying to do something" be specific then cause i ran my eyes through all these posts again back and forth,turned my pc upside downto see if i missed anything and still dunno why u said i didnt understand whats this threads purposes...?u are trying to delete some windows folder,whats with that? take ownership,change the permissions in the main permissions windows which gives u the option to " include enheritable permissions from this object's parent" and then u also should uncheck this option in order to delete ur folder THATS IT,if that didnt work ur system is not running smoothly which means something is wrong with it thus u should try a new installation!!!!!!!is dat clear enuff kid?u should Grow up and smart up by showing ur reasons ,simply saying that i dun even no what im talking about without specifications is just an empty statement!!!All my best,RR

Ddos_Evader. I assume you're using Windows 7 as yourprimary OS- did you install it on a new / low-level formatted HDD or on one previously used?If your're not having problems, it could go some way to proving or disproving that comment somewhere above (by Kieseyhow)that says that the root security bug is (at least partly) caused by the state of the drive you installed W7 on.zsolmanzEDIT: Personally, I don't think 777 permissions are a good idea at all. But as the administrator of my PC, I would love to have full control. And as to your comment here:"if that didnt work ur system is not running smoothly which means something is wrong with it thus u should try a new installation!" I've now re-installed Windows 7 RC (build 7100) 6 times in an attempt to do what I want. It's no better now than it was.Further edit: I think I just solved my problem - I'll reply after some more testing.

Well. I tested further, and I've come up with mixed results. For some folders, my method (the standard method I assume) works great. And for some it doesn't.All I did was change give the administrators group ownership over a few files (including subcontainers and objects)that "TrustedInstaller" apparently owned, then removed TrustedInstaller from the permissions list and gave the other four groups full control.Perfect - I can now delete Chess Titans, should I so wish.Not so with Windows -Live SkyDrive, -NT, -Photoviewer or -Sidebarin the Program Files (x86) folder(I haven't tested others), which after performing the above steps stated that I needed permission from "Administrators" to delete them. This may be because they're in use, but I know for sure that Photoviewer isn't. (I don't know what NT or Live SkyDrive do.)Anyway, I'd still like a method that changes all of them, consistently. Itseems odd to me that there's a discrepancy here, with exactly the same method.Of course, this isn't exactly David Brant's problem (the OP). He states that he's got hundreds of gigs of files, so even if the above method works it would take him a ridiculous amount of time to fix them all to his ownership.

David Brant's problem isn't related to original files in theroot folders at all. His files must've been from outside the system:"(400+ gigs) (I'm a digital photographer)"Presumably, his files are pics, and as such I doubt that they shipped with Windows. Strangely enough, in my previous attempts to delete Chess Titans (I don't have a problem with it, it's just a good example and not too important in case I delete it :p), it was always the .jpeg image within that folderthat was the troublesome one to delete.I noticed when I was mucking about with dual booting that if W7 locks you out of a file, or sets any permissions for it, then even a completely different OS (32bit XP pro in my case) will tell you thataccess is denied to those files, so obviously W7 extends its influence across the file structure.PS. I have UAC completely disabled - I don't know if this helps your diagnosis? But yes, I agree. Wait for the big guns to arrive. It has been 8 months since this thread was started though.EDIT: That was a retarded button-click, I didn't intend to propose your post as an answer.

I have just spent an hour on the phone with microsoft, this was after spending hours on these windows forums, hours googleing issues I am having with win 7. I am dual booting xp and win 7, both on separate drives, and it appears there is no way to have full admin rights to in win 7,like we had in xp. I understand microsoft's concern with the uac, but there should be a way, for experienced users to have full access to all the files and folders on our drives. Although I am very happy with the speed and response of win 7,compared to xp, these permission issues are making me lean to just boot xp and forget win 7. The first few days of using win 7, Iwas so impressed with it,I was telling all my tech buddies how great it is,and that they should go out and get it. Now I have to tell them all,yea it's great, but microsoft has taken away our admin rights, so I would recommend waiting to see ,if enough people complain, if microsoft allows usto have fullaccess to our own machines.I don't think this can happen,it seems this permission thing is part of the core of the os,and we will have to wait for win 8 to see a fix.I had dual booted xp and vista for a month,but was unhappy with vista,so I uninstalled it,so I am new to the uac and it's issues,( although I have it disabled in my win 7 install). One of the issues I am having,(win 7 pro), is I am only able to do a full image backup, if I click on backup now, nothing happens,( at first, when it said setup backup,when I clicked on it nothing would happen, then out of the blue,6 days after installing win 7, I get a popup in the action center stating you haven't setup backup. That 1 time I was able to use the backup.) Now if I click on manage space,change settings, or backup now,nothing happens. The only thing I can think of to try,(wasting more countless hours,is to disconnect all my 4 drives,put 1 new one in ,and install win 7 again, to see if like 1 of the other posters suggested, that having xp involved has some affect on win 7. I think he is right. I first installed win 7 from a download, when microsoft's support suggested I reinstall with the dvd, (an upgrade,not a clean install)I did that yesterday and it changed nothing. I also used windows transfer to move my stuff from xp to win 7. I wonder if this affected the issues I am having. Thus, I think my only recourse is to install again ,on a clean drive,with no other drives installed.Another minor issue I am having, is adding coretemp to startup,so I don't have manually start it everytime I boot. Microsoft's support had me create a admin acct,(with icon on the login screen and all), and I was able to drag coretemp.exe to the startup folder, but not when logged on as myself. I realize this is a minor complaint, but I feel it is again the permissions issue. We need to have full admin rights to our own pc's, not the rights microsoft feels we should have. As one of the other posters said:They should've made a Windows Ultimate Closed/Home version and a Windows Ultimate Enhanced Security version for Home network users, who don't need all this permissions c rap, and Public network users, who need more security. M$ has bollocksed-up their OS with their paranoia and we're paying for it.

(Apologies for flagging the previous comment as a potential answer... slip of the fingers...)Here's another viewpoint, including something that "worked for me":Like a few posters here, I also found that whole logical volumes randomly became "effectively off-limits", with some of the obvious symptoms including:* The absence of the "New" context option when trying to create a new folder. Obviously, I couldn't create much of anything else, either.* Messages to the effect that a volume was write-protected.* Inability to create files into existingdirectories.Some configuration-related info (not trying to show off, just painting a picture):* Multi-boot setup: XPhome/32bit/SP3 (my old 'live' system) + Win7RC/32bit (a testing system) + Win7RC/64bit (another testing system) + Win7HomePremium/64bit (installed 2 days ago with the objective of going live) * I'm currently running with UAC turned off, because of various 'issues'** Multi-HDD setup (not all shown, but all those shown are NTFS): 'C' - Win7HomePremium boot, brand new Corsair SSD purchased for this install, never used esewhere. Not partitioned. 'H(ome)' / 'M(usic)' / 'V(ideo)' / 'W(ork)' partitions on new Raid1 matching pair in eSATA enclosure. 'E' -Win7RC/64bit boot volume. PATA.Other hidden partitions. 'F' -XPhome/32bit/SP3 boot volume. SATA. Other hidden partitions. 'G' -Win7RC/32bit boot volume. SATA. Other hidden partitions. 'T' - WD eBook. eSATA enclosure. Not partitioned. 'X' - A scratch volume.SATA. Not partitioned.* The symptoms:Ihad been doing the occasional reboot among various systems to check things out.During *one* of the boots into XP, I noticed CHKDSK being scheduled: I let it run. I forget which logical volume.During a Win7HomePremium session, SOME of my volumes,namely X, H, M & W (but not V) started to show the 'unable to create new directory' problem. I was already running with UAC off (because of a limitation in DriveImageXML).I tried following the "take ownership" suggestions: Generally seemed to fail because of "Disk is write-protected"I tried following the "attrib" suggestion: Seemed to 'process' for a while, but eventually failed saying that 'system volume information' was read-only (I think)* What "worked for me":Somewhere in a linked post, there was a reference to running CHKDSK, so I tried it with "Automatically fix file system errors"checked ONand *IT WORKED*...but... there may be some diagnostic info in the WAY that it seems to have worked: Normally, the little window for CHKDSK shows some status information like USN bytes processed, *and* it also normally terminates with a "... successfully scanned..." message. When run against my 'broken' drives it ended relatively quickly, didn't send any messages, but it certainly fixed my problem... for now... Subsequent reruns of CHKDSK against the affected drives run normally, with full status info messages. I guess I can't reproduce the problem, and I sure don't want to!* Comments:It looks to me as if the problem may be symptomatic of sometype of corruption at the logical volume level.I'm not a Wintel expert but I do have 30+ years in mainframes at fairly deep technical levels, so I'm not totally illiterate either... ;-)I'm absolutely amazed that there seems to be such confusion surrounding an undoubtedly serious problem affecting a major system that has been out in beta for months, on high-visibility public release for weeks,and the SW supplier sems to be s.o.o.o quiet about it all...I think I'll try and avoid booting XP again... unless it's to revert because my Win7'production' system didn't come up to scratch :-) :-)Good luck to everyone having this problem; I hope my experience helps.Later note: This post may als be relevant to:http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprosecurity/thread/a092f176-b2f2-4b98-9e02-15d34d45b224and:http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprosecurity/thread/c3366c2f-b6db-4e0b-a000-fd05d271a27f/And another update:The problem seems to come back whenever it feels like it; the 'fix' only appears to be temporary.I'll post more info soon(ish), but in the meantime, here's another related forum:http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7repair/thread/dbdf9e52-8eb9-4a4f-a10e-2764dc20596d

MY SUGESTION IS TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE ENTIRE DRIVE FIRST, THEN ACCESS THE DRIVE AND CHECK TO SEE IF YOU HAVE OWNERSHIP OF THE DIFFERENT FILES AND FOLDER INSIDE THE DRIVE IT IS ANNOYING, I KNOW.SOMETIMES, BY TAKING OWNERSHIP OF THE ENTIRE DRIVE DOES MEAN YOU OWNERSHIP OF ALL THE CONTENT INSIDE THE DRIVE.atell02

AGAIN, AFTER TAKING OWNE SHIP OF THE FOLDER, CHECK FOR OWNERSHIP OF THE FILES OR INDIVIDUAL CONTENT OF THE FILESatell02

My post may not be related to the same issue but ...Last week I had a similar problem on my client`s machine, who installed Windows 7 without upgrading his EFI (bios). He had performed a upgrade installation from a running Vista SP2 system which has ended with an error and the setup reverted all changes.After next reboot the "C:\Windows" folder became fully corrupted and inaccessible. When attempting to repair the system using the "Repair your sytem/computer" option in the Windows boot/startup menu the recovery app. reported a irreparable corruption of the "C:\Windows" directory with "Access Denied" suggesting to run Chkdsk. After running chkdsk the result was the same. (It was even impossible to delete the folder) The solution: These are the actions I`ve performed to fix it without loosing any other data on the disk (except the messy "C:\Windows" folder).1. Booted into a live-linux distro CD with usefull tools. (sfdisk, parted ...) 2. Resized (shrinked) the Windows partition by the amount of exact the same size as the corrupted "C:\Windows" dir. Repaired the the corrupted MFT Table. Corrected the MBR/boot sectors and rebooted the notebook (back into linux again) (due to bad data provided by BIOS ,the S.M.A.R.T. feature of the disk reported a huge bunch of reallocated sectors..)3. Voila - non existent / but still present "C:\Windows" directory tree incl. all subfolders and files became accessible ergo "deletable".

one thing to add to this:Right click => Properties => Security => Advanced => Owner => Take Ownership => Click your user name => Then Select the box that says "Replace Owners on subcontainers and objects"Don't spam back on how simple it is, just try it first and see if it worked, as it worked for me to take control of anything even "application data" folder("Application data" is completely blocked off on Vista/Win.7)

That didn't work. I am the owner of these files and I cant access them.

Its a credible rant sterlingwolfe but alas, Windows file security is a nightmare from which nobody awakens.

Well, I have tried the sharing suggestion, and to no avail.I just thought I would post a short update.I also have noticed another folder that I cannot delete, called Window.old, which I find strange since I did a fresh installation. Whatever I try, it will not go away. I believe this to be related to my previous issue. I do hope that Microsoft has assigned someone who actually reads these forum posts and makes note or logs them for review. Computer software consultant for 27 years Not sure if this is still an issue for you. I was able to rid myself of this windows.old folder by doing a disk cleanup and saying yes to deleting previous versions of Windows.MVP

I have read the many posts on this obnoxious problem with Windows 7. I found and used a solutlion that was provided on another topic, and that was to use a free program called UNLOCKER. It worked quickly and successfully. Suggest others try it & post results here! best, Aaron

I dont care You are a IT freak the only thing I know is what you can read down here!! Windows 7 is not a serious OS, Windows 7 have too much errors, and some of this is really dangerous. Windows 7 after installing VirtualCloneDrive5, I get a blue screen. Windows automatically reboots to an other restore point. But this Restore point was faraway! So far that all other accounts are going and consequently lost all data from this accounts! I was possible to selecting in the Popup-Window a other restore point, but this was only theory because this other restore point no exists! No important what restore point you select, Windows have only this Point available who is actually running and nothing more! And this Problem also happens with drivers from CREATIVE and NVIDIA, All drivers who will be installed automatically from windows update!!! Microsoft Security Essentials is not compatible with Windows 7, After Installing mssefull the IE-Browser constantly stops to respond, a lot of Programs needs very very long (Hours)to install (I noted when the Installer copies ".gif") !! All this disappears when mssefull is uninstalled, this behaviour are only with Windows 7, On XP or Vista no problems. Microsoft Security Essentials, after scanning some external Hard-drive o USB-Drive it needs long time to respond without any notice, so if you remove this Drive from your PC, probably it will be lost and many people Have to troy it away! (Drive is RAW). Windows 7: When Opening the Explorer it shows the whole screen or less but did not remember the last windows position. When click in the folder bar it opens a folder, but also all the folders jumps up and down, when deleting a file or folder all jumps up and down but not remember the last position. OK I can write here much more, but the truth is Windows-7 Is far away from Windows-XP and finally with all the updates until now Windows-Vista is better than Windows-7. Any How! My Opinion Is How it is possible that Microsoft charge to the consumers so a lot of money for products which are nearly or totally useless! What’s happened in the world that the thieves and bandits, mostly from USA are controlling everything! What we can do and what must we do for to fight against!

dani_wb post solved it for me! Thanks, dani_wb. I did it a little differently, just deleted the Everyone user. I never noticed that 'special permission". I wasted a lot of frustrating time before I stumbled on your post. "Go to the Properties of the folder that you have problems (maybe also a file or something) Check if there is a user called "Everyone" with some Special Rights. If yes, there could be the problem... Sometimes Windows 7 put following rule: Everyone Deny to List Folder/Read Data Just delete this Everyone Deny, press three times ok and that's it. "

yes i too used unlocker, i had problems whereby opening itunes (with lots of music stored on an external hard drive) and Traktor Pro wouldnt let me use these files how i wished as i did not have correct user rights..... unlocker fixed this very simply (lucky me), when i ran it to scan my external HDD (it said there were no probs) it noticed a corrupt recycle bin directory (which must have been created in xp i am supposing) which it deleted and hey presto, seems to be working now, that said i did change many file permissions and recursive ownershi[ (however i already tried this before and it didnt work so i think its unlocker that worked for me). i have also noticed another problem with the recycle bin on external HDD's; thart is if you merely delete an object on an external drive (not shift_delete) so it is "in the recycle bin of that computer" without clearing recycle bin unplug drive and plug into diff. PC, then you cant delete (the folder/file is not there any more) but as it hasnt been deleted fully disk space is still taken up?? maybe (or maybe just in my case) the recycle bin needs to be fixed for external HDD's?? just my two cents :P

So a 3rd party program is the answer to all our problems? It's great that something works but it's a pity MS couldn't sort out its own problems. I personally haven't had any problems since I stopped trying to set up my windows installation exactly how I wanted it - I suppose if I want an OS exactly to my tastes I'll have to learn to write one. Thanks for bringing Unlocker to the fore, Aaron.

Hello Dani I was just going to post a similar problem I had whith several folders in the root of C: and in my user account. I've seen that a similar matter was already posted and I have read this your post. I have already applied it to one of my folders, removed the everyone from the list, and I didn't even had to press three times OK. Now it's working. I have already access. I'm procceding for the other folders with the same problem Thanks to you. Regards Joao

It seams almost as though windows 7 isn't allowing you to use explorer as an admin like you can do with other programs (ie. cmd...) I dropped the UAC permissions down, and rebooted, and it worked. thanks.

Dani Thanks. That worked for me. Win 7 team - What a lunatic design to Deny Everyone and override Administrator settings! Andrew

Hi, someone out there please help me! I have already changed the ownership of the C drive and double check the settings in the C drive properties -> security tab, and it shows my username as the owner. But when I try to edit a simple text file (notepad) and save in the root of C drive, it doesn't allow me to do it. The error indicated "A required privilege is not held by the client." This is so frustrating, I am the administrator, then I need to change the ownership. Then after changing the ownership, I can't even save a file in C drive. Please help me. MS really sucks when they try to do too much and interfere with user permission. Please help me. I will be bookmarking this thread and check any answers or solution to this issue... Thks all...

just a shot in the dark: are the files looking green in explorer? if they do, it might be that they are encrypted. encrypted files might not be readable if you have upgraded your OS as the encryption is signed by the older OS. to decrypt these files you might need a 3rd party utility to re-sign those files encrypted.

Another shot in the dark... check the file type to be sure it is not a shortcut. If it is, get the file folder the shortcut references, copy it, delete the shortcut, and then paste the folder as a replacement for the shortcut.

Hello, I had same problem, after spending sometime looking, I found out that the best way to delete them is from DOS . Start--programs--Accessories---right click on Command Prompt and choose run as Administrator , then navigate to your folder place, for me, I needed to delete so I used the command "rmdir "foldername" and it worked, I think copy commands will work too, give it a try. I hope I could help.Mark

RIGHT CLICK THE FILES YOU NEED TO SET THE PROPERTIES ON, AND CHOOSE POPERTIES...(PUN) ON THE SHARING AND SECURITY TAB, CHOOSE ADVANCED, AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER THE FILE...THIS WON'T WORK IF YOU ARE NOT AN ADMINISTRATIVE -LEVEL USER., OR IF YOUR ACCOUNT IS INCLUDED IN THE PLAIN USERS CATEGORY...

??Im sorry, but you honestly think that we havent tried that?? jeez, sorry if i sound pissed off, but that is truely a bad suggestion, it is already established that the problem lies far far deeper than that.

Sharing permissions only apply to directories shared over the network. Local access ignores sharing permissions: if the drive is on the local machine, you are only interested in AD permissions. Go to the root drive and go to advanced, CAREFULLY set permissions there, and put the check mark in the "replace permissions on all child objects..." and apply. This will take some time... Yes this will hose permissions for backups, databases and other software that creates special rights and user accounts for functionality (i.e. quickbooks, SQL, BackupExec, etc.

I have the problem on an external USB drive partitioned in XP Pro. Since clean installing Win 7, I am unable to alter or save to this partition. I have tried everything mentioned here but still to no avail. These files are not shared but I have read-only access.

I've been fighting the Security User in Windows 7 for 3 weeks now and NO ONE seems to have a workable answer to how one gains the ability to sinply change out a program file. In my searching for an answer, I ran across a story where the manager of the UAC development group at MS said "We did that intentionally to ANNOY the user! To force them to change their behavior." Wasn't that sweet of them? Since there is NO answer to this problem, I'm about to see just how far my OEM Win7 Premium DVD will fly (I'm on top of a mile high mountain). I see no reason to keep butting my head against the company, no more than I figure I'll ever spend one more dollar on anything Microsoft. They want to mess with me. I stop paying them. Small annoyance, I'm sure, but with as many people's computers that I work on, "word of mouth advertising" is better than money can buy and I'll definitely inform my clients as to what NOT to purchase. I've already had 8 clients have me install Win 7 and return to have it pulled and replaced with XP. Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with this on. I understand Windows 8 may be out by the end of the year (2011). If they continue this absurdity, many will bypass that purchase also, myself included. So, tell me I'm wrong. Or, walk me, step by step, through the "jungle" of gaining control. I've done everything I've read about online, to no avail. Windows may be the new "gem" but it's just a POS to me, so far. However, I know what DOESN'T work and am looking ONE LAST TIME to see if anyone knows what DOES work. Tell me how to simply overwrite a file successfully. No more, no less. So far, no one's come up with the answer. YOU????

Your a Genius Mr ColtWanger!

HELLO ALL. I THINK I HAVE A SOLUTION. I HAD THIS PROBLEM FOR A WHOLE 4 HOURS AND SOMEONE SUGGESTED THAT I DISABLE ANTIVIRUS TEMPORARILY. SOMEHOW THAT WORKED AND I IMMEDIATELY HAD "EVERYONE" 'S PERMISSION AND WAS ABLE TO MODIFY THE FILE ( I ASSUME THAT THE ANTIVIRUS HAS SOME USER CONTROL PRIVILEGES ITSELF). I AM NOT SURE IF THAT WOULD WORK FOR YOU CONSIDERING THAT THE OBJECT IN QUESTION WAS A CRACK WITH A FALSE POSITIVE BUT I GUESS IT'S WORTH A TRY. I AM RUNNING AN OLDER PC WITH WINDOWS 7 64 BIT UPGRADED AND THE CAPS LOCK BUTTON IS FROZEN ON SO SORRY IF IT LOOKS LIKE I AM SHOUTING.

I have switched from Xp to W7; loaded W7 onto a new 1TB disk and used the old disk for storage, it was partitioned int 3 sections and I could access the second and third partitions but not the first. After trawling through all the forums I eventually removed permissions from 'Everyone' and 'System' left wyself on and hey presto all working!

I have just stumbled on to this thread after months of anguish, frustration, lost time and incredible expense to the tune of about $2000 in new hard drives (more if you include my old hard drives that didn't survive the multiple wipes)! I am excited to see things to try that I haven't tried yet (including driving to the top of a mountain with all my MS software and testing its flight capabilities . . LOL) and will start on that promptly. I would like to know if anyone has come across any new information on this. I see that the last post was in August with still no direct solution. Any info would be greatly appreciated.Donna Wise

In addition to what Mr. ColtWanger said, in my case after taking ownership of the folder I still couldn't push permissions down to the files in the folder since I didn't haver permission or ownership of those files. To get ownership of all those files I just added a \*.* to the TAKEOWN command TAKEOWN /F <some drive>\< some path>\< some folder>\*.* ex. C:\> TAKEOWN /F "E:\Users\user1\AppData\Temp\*.*" Once I had ownership of all the files in the directory I could run the ICACLS command just fine ICACLS <some drive>\< some path>\< some folder> /grant %USERNAME%:F /T ex. C:\> ICACLS E:\Users\user1\AppData\Temp /grant %USERNAME%:f /T

I just don’t know if the question is still the same who generated this topic. There’s a long time that I don’t come to this topic. But, if it is, my intention is to live here what I have learned about this question In NTFS there is an attribute called $FILE_NAME that configures in one of its fields if the file is or is not a reparse point. When system finds a file which is defined as a reparse point, he searches for the adequate filter defined in that field and executes what is indicated by that filter. For instance, a shortcut for a file, which is a file (everything in NTFS are files) is defined as a reparse point and executes a filter which sends the system to the real file. The same way, because Windows 7 changed the names of the locations of several kind of files, to keep compatibility with older systems and programs that referred to those files in the older positions, Microsoft created the ancient files (a folder is a file- Index file – for NTFS) as reparse points which redirect to the newest locations of those files. So, those folders you are trying to access are reparse points. They don´t have anything with them. They just redirect the system to the appropriated local.

I radically disagree. I am a systems developer for VMS. We had good security but also privelages to bypasses file security. I NEVER ran without it. Windows file security is awful bacause theirs no way to turn it off even with the UAC off. Renee"MODERN PROGRAMMING is deficient in elementary ways BECAUSE of problems INTRODUCED by MODERN PROGRAMMING." Me

For one, lets agree that (especially males and I'm a male) are jealous of people more successful than us. Bill Gates for example. Lets agree many of these people refuse to use Windows and use Linux for that very reason - jealousy. Lets agree that people constantly complain that Windows is so LESS secure than Linux. These same people troll these forums complaining under one name that Windows is so insecure, and then under another name that Windows security is too tight. Duhhhhhh. This tread is all over the place, with so much wrong information, I pity the original poster. Linux users are told "don't run as "Root". They don't. Increases security. So MS follows suit, because it is a good idea. Boom, everyone is confused and lost. Is it that Linux users are that much smarter than Windows users? Here are the issues as I see them: 1) How many people think that if they are logged on as a user who is a member of the Administrators group that the program they are using (e.g. Explorer or the Command Prompt) is running with Administrator privilleges? By default programs start w/o admin even if you are a member of the admin group; you must explicitly start the program as admin, otherwise that program (file manager, explorer, cmd) runs as YOU (i.e. your userid), and not admin; this is good; police only use a gun when necessary - same concept 2) File/folder ownership - ownership ONLY conveys that the owner can change the security access; it does NOT itself GIVE YOU ANY ACCESS to the file/folder (like reading or writing or deleting) 3) Once taking control, you can then change security 4) These actions can be performed either in the Security tab GUI, or using the TAKEOWN and ICACLS commands "DOS" commands 5) Please mis-poster - if you want to use DOS commands, please do so and post it in the MS-DOS forum (sorry I don't have the URL); DOS and DOS prompts haven't existed since I reached puberty; the Command Prompt is NOT DOS; it is a full 64 bit prompt asking you want do you want to do (many of these people are actually Linux people out trolling trying to convince people that Windows is really a DOS GUI built on top of DOS (ha ha); you know, Linux has a DOS prompt as well, using your definition - how about that - Linux is really a DOS and a GUI!!!!! 6) I believe that everyone could be happy if MS came out with windows No Security for those that want to be Alpha Males - you know, I CAN DO EVERYTHING CUZ I'm BIG AND TOUGH; please don't post if your using such a system and someone else, including hackers delete or modify your files; that and a Secure Windows for the rest of us who want Windows with security. 7) MS should come out with the equivalent of NTFS and Windows Security for Dummies blurb - basic easy to understand info for the non IT professional, that makes it easy to understand and with examples of what to do, because the info I've read on this post is more wrong than right. Pity the poor person that tries this then tries that. Lucky medical doctors don't work like "us" professionals do, huh? Because I agree, for the home user, most of this security stuff - may as well be written in Sanskript. 8) No I don't believe that an Admin user should have access to everyone's data. In a business world (to us professionals, we know, but others posting here might not realize): if you as an Admin can view my password ("hi, I forgot my password, can you tell me what it is?") - is completely stupid; when you sign up at a company, you sign a document saying that you MUST NOT share your password WITH ANYONE ELSE. If admins know my password, this is sharing my password. In court, if it is found that my USERID did something bad, I can simply say "not me, one of the admins logged on with my userid since they know my password your honor, and I had no say because I didn't give them my password - they just gave themselves access to my password" - end of trial. If you want to see someone else's data, GET THEIR PERMISSION; they can provide YOU access if they want to. Sharing data requires BOTH to say yes. As they being regular users can't modify common shared data (e.g. compromise system files etc) - they can't affect you. Admin access where I can do anything I want - these are the same people that would say "NEVER" if you wanted full access to their data ("do as I say, not as I do"). I can't see your data? You can't see mine. End of story. And for parents who are curious about their children's data collection? Your children's USER folder can be modified so you can see it and they can be prevented from storing files elsewhere. Tell them "your data is viewable by us - forewarned" (until they encrypt it). The problem with Free Support is often, you get what you pay for.

Fish Monger is right! Renee"MODERN PROGRAMMING is deficient in elementary ways BECAUSE of problems INTRODUCED by MODERN PROGRAMMING." Me

"they are separated from the machine-levels of priveledges," I started to say that privilges are an operating system phenominon but that's not true. There is K,E,S and U. I dont think S is well developed in the Windows world. Bur K and U definately are. Renee "MODERN PROGRAMMING is deficient in elementary ways BECAUSE of problems INTRODUCED by MODERN PROGRAMMING." Me

OK..... Since this seems to be missing. IF ALL ELSE FAILS: boot into a linux livecd and copy/rename the file At the least it will do this, no questions asked. It MIGHT let you/automatically reset the permissions on the file. No questions asked.

yes, i am currently experiencing somewhat of the same dilemma as I have upgraded to windows7 professional. Thus, i was boggled by the repeated and countless times i opened up my back up files and could not restore them. I came to a solution which is in general If.. you saved your files on back up to a different drive and system protection was ON then you CAN restore its files to its original settings. In fact, the files never left your local partition just hidden from u for the safety of the dual processors and system crash or failure. so, if you or anyone is asking how do i? well, it's simple, just right click on the back up location and restore to its original version.... cheers

My issue is similar (related to permissions) but am unable to take ownership and Win7 has stopped booting: I recently came accross this and it appears it has invalidated the permissions on the Win7 disk. I can no longer directly access the drive in Win8 - permissions denied. I also can not boot to Win7 - it gets to where it should show the logon screen and gives me black screen on both monitors and a mouse cursor but that is it. I first attempted to repair the startup but as far as Windows knows it "booted sucessfully" for the same reason the last good configuration is also no good. I then attempted a restore and it can't read the disk - but booting into normal repair mode (Win7) I can navigate the disk and was even able to browse the files on the drive. I attempted to use ICACLS from Win7 recovery, granting (no :r) Administrators group as the owner. It goes through all the files, says successful but it's unable to write the log at the end. I then booted to Win8 and attempted properties => security on the whole (G drive) - I am also unable to grant the Win8 administrator access to the drive, it shows the shield and I approve but it is unable to enumerate the files within in order to adjust permissions for each file / subfolder within. I also attempted an ICACLS from Win8 with seemingly positive results - it completes and says successful but it does not change anything. The drive and subdirectories are listed as read only, I also receive the enumerating error when attempting to clear the read only box int he properties for the entire drive. I have also attempted this with subdirectories only. I can not browse g:\ but I can go right to g:\subfolder - I can see the files, but I do not have permission. To reproduce this issue: - existing 128g SSD for Win7 system, data folders moved to separate data drive (my documents, etc) - new 128g SSD for Win8 - changed boot order to Optical Win8 Win7 - installed Win8 from DVD - after initial configuration rebooted and pressed F8 for BIOS boot menu - selected Win7 drive - Win7 booted successfully - rebooted to Win8, installed an application which already existed on the Win7 drive - installed to G(Win7)\program files (x86)\application overwriting the (same version, same install) application installed on Win7 to align the Win8 registry with the program files - application referenced G(Win7)\subfolder\data files - shutdown - started Win8, used application successfully - booted to Win7 (same method as above), used application successfully - booted to Win8, performed hibernate - turn on computer, Win8 resumed - could no longer get to G(Win7) drive due to permission errors - restarted Win8 - same results - attempted to start Win7 - received blank screen w/ mouse - attempted to startup repair via Win7 F8 menu - nothing to fix (appears OS booted successfully) - attempted permissions refresh with ICACLS - attempted booting to safe mode - bluescreen - attempted restore - no Win7 system disk found - Win8 still boots, still unable to get to G(Win7) drive from Win8 due to permissions errors - any low level tools with administrator permissions get an access denied when attempting to access the drive, open files, or make any modifications to permissions or properties How can the filesystem be recovered if Win7 will not boot and Win8 is denied access? (Bitlocker is NOT enabled on either drive) Joshua Wilcox