Windows 10: Admistrative permission needed

I have Windows 10 and in the Windows old folder there are several sub folders. They are all taking a huge amount of space. When I try to delete them it says I "Admistrative permission needed ". I even took control over them. And this is my personal computer. How can I get them deleted?

:)

 

Administrator Permissions in Windows 10

I need admistrator to my computer

 

restoring adminstrative access control to this *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

HELLO,

STRANGELY ENOUGH NOW I LOST ADMISTRATIVE ACCESS PERMISSIONS ON THIS PC. HOW DO I RESTORE THEM? I AM TOLD I CAN''T ACCESS ANYTHING!!!!!!!! PLZ HELP.

 

1.Use this tutorial to remove windows.old
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...dows-10-a.html

2. Windows.old is supposed to be deleted automatically 30 days after the new OS is installed. I assume this is still applicable to Windows 10.

 

The Windows Old folder will not delete after 30 days, or at least did not delete for me, I had to wipe the heck out of it.

If you just want to delete the whole thing, I suggest using Unlocker. You can get it at Major Geeks- Use my link. But the installer has the Babylon Toolbar virus. To install it and avoid the virus, shut off your AV and run the installer (Your AV will detect Babylon in the EXE file). Choose "Custom Install" and when prompted, uncheck all items under "Delta Toolbar". Then you will be OK. I have documented this in the comments section of that tweak on the Major Geeks page. Most free tools have some kind of toolbar added and lately ESET has decided to mark ALL toolbar instalers as Virii. So even CCleaner will have Google Toolbar in it and ESET deletes the package.

After you have installed Unlocker, right click on the Windows.old folder in Explorer. Choose "Unlocker" and you will see one of two interfaces, a small interface or a larger one. The larger one appears if any of the processes in Windows.Old are being called up by another program - Usually Explorer itself. On the bottom left, you will see functions, choose "Delete", on the right side, you will see "Unlock All" or "Kill Process" - Select Unlock All, and it will kill the Explorer thread that has latched on and then it will prompt you to delete the folder.

If the smaller interface comes up, choose "delete" fro the bottom left, then choose "OK" and it will delete everything.

Here are images of the interfaces, the small interface:





And the Large interface:





Once you pull em up you can see other choices. This can also be used to kill a process that's locked. Just remember to choose "Custom Install" for Unlocker and then deselect all Delta Toolbar items.

Unlocker Details Page

 

Do NOT use Unlocker. I tried it for the purpose of removing windows.old and it really messed things up - I had to restore from an image. Instead use the built in Disk Cleaner. There is an option in the lower left hand corner to delete old windows versions. That will work and save several GB of disk space - may more. Before you do you may want to check your user area in windows.old for any files or documents you need to keep

 

Windows.old can be removed with windows "Disk Clean-Up" utility. After it opens, select the drive containing install location...typically "C". Then select "Clean up system files" at the bottom and then select the check box beside windows.old. Once done, then you can delete the windows.old folder with no issues.

 

I've been using Unlocker for several years, specifically to remove windows.old but also a lot of other folders that can't be deleted. Not once have I ever bricked my OS using it.

If it caused you problems, it's most likely your install was corrupt somehow. You may have had files in your windows.old folder still being accessed by the system. But that's never happened to me. And I've used the app at least 500 times, on my machines and on machines I have repaired for my clients. Not one of them had any issues after using it. You are supposed to be deleting a folder that for all intents and purposes is not necessary, if you had an issue after deleting it with Unlocker, then you had a problem before you ever used it.

I'm not saying that you won't have any problems at all if you use it, if you use it correctly on folders that are not needed but locked out. Only if you use it unwisely. If you choose a folder that is being accessed, the large screen pops up and it tells you what program(s) are accessing the files inside. Usually it is Explorer, in which case it is safe to kill the processes and delete the folder. But if you see any other apps with a locking handle, I would (and I do) stop what I'm doing until I find out *why* that app is accessing that file.

 

Agreed...I use the program Unlocker (not necessarily for windows.old folder but I use it quite frequently) and is usually one of the 1st things I install right after a clean install. It is a handy little tool. It mainly gets used when a file or folder is locked in use with explorer and I don't want to restart explorer.

 

I'm surprised to hear about any problems resulting from using it- I think the person deleted the wrong windows folder, they might have deleted their regular windows folder by mistake. Hell I have done that in the past but it was my mistake, not the app's.

Mostly I use it to eradicate folders left over from ms updates.