Windows 10: Cannot take ownership of any folder, despite repeated attempts

Sometime last week -- and I can't figure out when or why -- I lost ownership of all of the folders on my PC. I noticed when I was no longer able to create folders. Then I discovered none of the folders have security tabs.

The C drive itself and my external hard dive (L) both have security tabs, but when I go into them to take ownership (Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Check both "Replace owner..." and "Replace child permissions..." -> Apply) the process fails because of a "Failed to enumerate objects in the container. Access is denied" error.

My system restore didn't fix it, because it didn't go back far enough (I think), and I can't find the same error in the various forums.

Does anyone have a suggestion beyond reinstalling/refreshing Windows? I could do that, but reinstalling all of my software is five or six hours I'd prefer to waste on just about anything else.

Thanks in advance!

:)

 

WindowsApps folder on other drives/partitions other than C:\

I just discovered that attempting to take ownership of the WindowsApps folder on any drive but C:\ isn't working correctly.

If you process this on C:\Program Files\WindowsApps, it works just fine. But any other drive letter; IE E:\WindowsApps, it will display that you have taken ownership, but you cannot access the folder.

A little bit more digging, after processing ownership, you CAN access it under safe mode and make further edits to the folder permissions, but if you go back into a normal boot, you cannot access the folder.

I understand that these folders have these settings for a reason, but if we are allowed to take ownership, we should then be able to access them.

 

Cannot take ownership of Windows folder

Taking ownership of files and folders in Windows 10 can be hit or miss, Click HERE to download a Reg file from my DropBox Account, double
click it and select yes to merge with your registry.

Then on your right click menu you will see a new entry 'Take Ownership'. So all you have to do is right click any folder or file and select Take Ownership, a Command Prompt window will open and perform the task for you.

I would however advise you not to take ownership of the whole Windows folder, you should only take ownership of the regedit.exe file or any other files you need to . . .

 

This command should reset permissions to default:

Code: icacls C:\* /T /L /Q /C /RESET[/quote]

 

Strangely, that didn't work at all. I watched the notifications go by, but none of the folder permissions changed. The notifications said repeatedly "Access is denied."