Windows 10: I changed WindowsApps folder ownership to my account, now my games won't start, or...

I've made a right mess of this. So, I wanted to install mods into No Man's Sky, which I installed as part of the xbox game pass app. MS, in their infinite wisdom, have locked all editing of files in WindowsApps, so I tried to take ownership of the NMS game's folder. This kept reverting, so I took ownership of the WindowsApps folder. This gave me access to the folders, but has caused a litany of other problems...


Most of my installed games won't start - the only unaffected game is Forza Horizon 4. All others silently fail when I hit play. the games that are failing are Grounded, Saints Row 4, No Man's Sky, and Rage 2.


If I try to open the related game folders in explorer, it gives an error stating the system cannot access this location.


So I tried uninstalling NMS through the app, and it said it was gone, but the folder remains and my free disk space has not changed. So I tried manually deleting the folder - it gave an access error, but when I clicked try again it went through the normal deletion process/progress bar display. The folder is now gone from explorer, but my free disk space has not changed.


I tried reinstalling NMS through the xbox app and it gives error code 0x80070057 and not much other info. Googling this error suggests a file system error.


So far the fixes I have tried are: SFC scan no errors, chkdsk no errors DISM no errors, malware scan a couple of minor hits, but just the usual adware, now removed. I tried changing the ownership of WindowsApps folder to 'Everyone' and making sure it has full access rights, no effect. I tried changing my account to super-user, no effect.


I'm completely at a loss of what to try next. I think I've not only completely borked my xbox apps install, but have given myself a large amount of phantom data on my drive which I don't know how to erase.


I could really use some ideas of what to try next.


Also, could someone please tell me what the original ownership account is for the Program Files/WindowsApps folder - I can try changing it back to that if I can find what it is I really should have written it down!.

:)

 

WindowsApps folder ownership

Hello,

As I know, the default owner for WindowsApps folder is TrustedInstaller. You can try restoring ownership to TrustedInstaller, refer first reply here for the required steps:

Restore WindowsApps permissionss to TrustedInstaller

Hope this helps!

 

Permission/Ownership Issues WindowsApps Folders...

I have been tearing what little hair I have left out of my head trying to copy a file from my desktop to the appropriate folder in the Kodi folder buried in the XBMC… folder in Windowsapps in a brand-new fairly high-end laptop running Windows 10 Pro. I cannot get beyond first what appears to be a UAC “Destination Folder Access Denied” error message saying “You’ll need to provide administrative permission to copy to this folder.” If I click on the UAC “continue” button I get another “Destination Folder Access Denied” error box saying “You need permission to perform this action.” The second error box has only “Try Again” and “Cancel” buttons. Nothing is listed under “More details” in either error box.

Here is most of what I have tried:

1. changing ownership of Windowsapps and all folders below it to my Microsoft account user and granting full-control permissions to Windowsapps and all folders below it;
2. changing ownership to administrators group for Windowsapps and all folders below it and granting full-control permissions to Windowsapps and all folders below it;
3. enabling the “hidden” administrator account, going back to my Microsoft user account and granting full-control rights to the administrator account, returning to the administrator account, taking control with that account, granting full control permission to Windowsapps and all folders below it;
4. creating a new administrator account and repeating 3;
5. completely disabling UAC through the registry, once in the default administrator account and once in my Microsoft account user.
6. adding and using the “Take Ownership” context option on a Windowsapps folder as described in the Tutorial at Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10 ; and
7. running the following commands in an administrator command window:

Code:

as suggested at: Permission/Ownership Issues WindowsApps Folders... - Windows 10 Forums
In fact, even if I do an explicit copy from an administrator command window, I get an “access is denied” notice.

None of the many sources I have looked at online are of any help in dealing with this blockage. Please help — not only do I need to get full-control access to Windowsapps and its subfolders for this purpose, I also need to get full-control permission to Windowsapps folders in order to get rid of an annoying McAffee startup.exe which pops an error box on every boot up even though I removed McAffee in the normal way.

How can I get assured access to Windowsapps folders???

 

WindowsApps folder ownership

If you change ownership on the WindowsApps folder, how do you change it back to the original owner?