Windows 10: Cannot delete files owned by "Administrators" group

I agree that XP and earlier let you do pretty much anything you wanted, so long as the file wasn't locked. And that was a huge problem. One might argue that the new permissions model just creates a new set of problems, and that's true. But systems are definitely more stable these days than they used to be, and I can attest that XP gets malware infestations a LOT easier.

I don't honestly recall what the typical problem I used to encounter on this was... I used to get frustrated about this myself, until I finally figured it out a long time ago. Then I haven't had the problem in so long I've forgotten it again *Wink

 

I believe that is why the ownership/permissions/rights system was changed in Vista (and onwards).

I can also recall reading one post from an XP user, who decided to "tidy up" their System32 folder (which trashed their install completely). *Eek

 

It is not difficult to get full control over the system how long you only need ONE administrator with full control. Activate the built-in Administrator, go to the Control Center and force Windows to show all hidden and system files and take ownership of everything. After that, grand yourself full access to every file and make that inheritable. As an alternative to the built-in Administrator, use group policy to not require elevation for Administrators, and choose any administrator account to proceed. In that case, you can choose any administrator account and still open windows apps with any non-administrator account in case you care about them what I don't.

If you do like I wrote above, your main administrator account should behave pretty much like in old Windows XP times. Of course, one can trash the system once more by deleting system files, but everybody who disables all nanny futures and then deletes something without knowing what he does, deserves no better, especially with Windows warning that it's a system file. The same goes for simply installing the first best program from the Internet or even worse installing some free program from dubious advertisement/popups.

The problem compared to Windows XP is that I cannot grand the entire Administrators group full access. If I hand over the file system to the Administrators Group and I try, for example, to delete Windows.old with any administrator account (it doesn't matter built-in or not), Windows refuses. I find that's the most annoying thing, as it forces me to either only use one administrator account, to switch accounts or to change the ownership again and again.