Windows 10: How do I restore all administrator privileges for C drive?

I need to know how to restore the privileges for my C drive because I removed them all by going to properties/security/advanced and then somehow removing AdministratorsDESKTOP-***** \Administrators.I am told when I click on C: drive " C: is not accessible" "access is denied".I am told when I try to access something in C: drive like Task Manager "Windows cannot access C:\WINDOWS\system32\taskmgr.exe"I click Diagnose and an told a problem is preventing the troubleshooter from starting. I assume this problem it refers to is no access to C drive which I need.Please can you tell me how to fix thi

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C:\ Drive unwritable to non-administrator privileged applications

I have reproduced your problem in the latest version of Windows 11 and found that:

• If you run MS Paint as an administrator, you can then save the image to C:\ root directory. Since when you run the program as an administrator, you already have all the permissions to the C drive, including the Read and write permissions for C:\ root directory.
  
• But if you run MS Paint as normal user, you can access C:\ in the Save as pop-up and create a new directory (you will be prompted for administrator privileges), and then you can save the image directly in that directory. But you can't save directly to the C:\ root directory.
  

This is normal and is designed for system security reasons.

 

C:\ Drive unwritable to non-administrator privileged applications

I didn't have any problem. Perhaps you meant to reply to AgentX2009?

Unfortunately, Microsoft uses confusing terminology when it comes to elevated privileges. The option "Run as administrator" should have been labelled something like "Run elevated". If one is already logged in as an "Administrator" user, then "Run as administrator" sounds redundant. Yes, you and I know it's different, but it's amazing that Microsoft didn't see the potential for confusion.

There are, therefore, three privilege levels at which one can run any app: 1) Standard user, 2) Administrator user, 3) Elevated privileges (i.e. "Run as administrator").

The error message, when attempting to save to the root of C: , is the same for Standard and Administrator users.

Creating a new folder off the root of C: is allowed, without any elevation prompt, for both Standard and Administrator users.

Yes, when MSPaint is run elevated (using the option "Run as administrator") files can be saved directly to the root of C: without prompt, but this should not be confused with normally running MSPaint with an Administrator type account.

What remains as a mystery to me is how the OP got the error "A required privilege is not held by the client" when the expected message is "You don't have permission to save to this location".

 

Lost access rights to C drive in Windows 10, even from administrator account!

Let's get a few things straight.

• In my Windows 10 I was using a personal account (domain "desktop-[pc-code]\[myuser]) that was labelled as administrator.
• Try to enable hidden administrator account with net user administrator /active:yes

-> In Windows, your admin account has exactly the same privileges as the inbuilt Administrator account.

• I unfortunately removed all access rights to C: drive from Properties -> Security.

-> Which folders are affected?

• From Administrador account, in cmd prompt, tried using takeown command over C: drive (takeown /f C:\ )

-> The correct command would be takeown /f C:\ /r. You must run it under
elevated privileges.

• Tried restoring the system to an older state from recovery options

-> System restore will restore system files. It will not modify permisssions.

• Any other idea before having to reinstall the whole system and losing all files?

-> It keeps amazing me how concerned many people are about losing their files, yet they persistently ignore the need for regular (e.g. weekly) backups. In your case I am happy to report that your files are safe.