Windows 10: I have broken W 10 by trying to take ownership of C:\ please help!

Ok so earlier I did something completely stupid, I tried to take ownership of C:\ in user permissions and changed from trustedinstalller to my username as I was having admin privilege problems and nothing was working.

Well turns out that is a very bad idea (the other site I read this on gave no warning for doing it on C:\) and now, whilst windows is working and all my files still remain, I cannot use the start bar, Microsoft edge won't even open and the start button won't work either I also had a warning that recycle bin had corrupted but that seems to be fixed now for some reason.

Now, failing there being a way to fix this (I have yet to find a fix despite numerous searches on google and the ones I have found won't work) I am probably looking at a reset of the OS :-(.

Now this is where I need help, I don't want to have to reinstall a bunch of steam games or setup my game emulators again, I also I don't want to have to lose my files folders and installed programs like my custom Intel rapid storage tech which is the only one that doesn't give me bluescreens.

Is there anyway I can literally backup all my data and then reinstall! windows and then run the backup so it all goes back to exactly how it was before? With all my reg edits and old files, all my saved windows setting etc?

Or is there a way I can repair windows without losing anything? Literally just a repair of windows itself and all my programs and files and folders will stay in tact?

Please help!

:)

 

Trying to download a program, I get error "Windows cannot access the specified drive, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access this item."

Hello Martin,

Thank you for your response.

I appreciate your time.

Please try taking ownership of C: drive and check if it helps.

Refer this article:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2623670

(Also holds good for Windows 10)

Please keep us updated.

Thank you

 

administrator permission

Which part of the system are you trying to delete the folder from? Please note that system folders located under C:\ drive should not be deleted. If its within your user folder, try taking ownership of the folder, then try deleting again. How-To Easily Take Ownership Of Windows 7 Files and Folders

 

If you have setup System Restore Points then the simplest approach is to restore to a point in time before you made the changes to your C:\ drive.

System Restore Windows 10

 

Unfortunately there was no restore points despite the fact that I only made one the day before and there was none before that either.

Could I try and use media creation tool tto possibly fix it?
.

 

You could try Windows Repair to reset file permissions.

 

The best way to repair windows without losing anything is to do an in-place upgrade. Follow the tutorial below:

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

 

Going to attempt it now using media creation tool, wish me luck. Is it probably best to back all my files up with something like easetodo before hand on a seperate hard drive?

 

No-one will ever tell you not to make a backup *Smile

However I've done dozens of in-place upgrades in Windows 10 and never had a problem losing anything.

Note that in-place upgrade will only replace your C:\Windows directory. It will not fix "C:\Program Files" and so on. It is a (I think fairly major) risk to have these other directories with the wrong permissions especially if you granted full authority. There is a reason that directories containing programs are read only.

If I was you I would backup my data, scrap the lot and do a clean install. It only takes a few hours unless you have a huge number of extra programs to re-install and at least you will be certain all is OK.

Alternatively you can try to reset your other permissions (in addition to the posts above there are some instructions here) but I would never be 100% sure that they are correct and covered everything. In particular there is a new group in Windows 10 (perhaps also in 8, I can't remember) called APPLICATION PACKAGE AUTHORITY\ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES which is used to grant authority to the new Metro style apps. No steps or tools I've read about to reset permissions seem to cover this group at all.

 

Well basically this is the situation now, I used the media creation tool, everything is back to how it was now, the search bar is working again HOWEVER I have noticed that all the windows apps are still not working, windows store, calculator, microsoft edge, none of these things will even open, edge flickers open for maybe half a millisecond but that's it.

If I make a new user account all these thing are working but obviously I want to avoid doing that if I can because it seems a ballache having to reset so many things back to how I had them (mouse sensitivity and a number of other things I tweaked to get things running perfect for my main purpose which is gaming.)

so I guess my question is now, can I fix these apps? Or is that what you are describing above when you say about permissions not being fixable on windows apps?

Also, if I do reinstall windows completely does that mean all my backed program files will still have the permissions affected because I backed them up after the initial permissions change?

 

Just started getting "The recycle bin on c:\ is corrupt" again, to hell with it, I am doing a clean install, seems like more work than it needs to be trying to fix things.

 

I'm not saying you can't. Just I don't know how and the thing is that you might spend ages looking into all this and then give up and clean install or (if you are happy with it) just using the new account that works. I've spent days faffing around in this sort of situation before admitting defeat.

There are a couple of things you could look into though (this is not exhaustive of course)...

• C:\Program Files\WindowsApps must have authority for the ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES group. (this is where the apps you describe reside). Assuming you only changed ownership of directories and didn't mess with DCOM permissions this may be the solution. The owner of this directory should be TrustedInstaller , the contents should grant read and execute and list to ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES group.
  
  [*]%localappdata% contains a directory called TileDataLayer which has a database containing your start menu layout and (as far as I can figure out) authority to individual modern apps. You could try copying the whole directory from another account. See here Solved Resetting Win 10 Start Menu - Windows 10 Forums. It should be owned by your profile so you'd have to change it after if you do that.
  
  [*]%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Counters.dat file corruption often causes a problem for Edge. You can sign on another account and delete it (See here Solved Problems downloading with Edge - Page 4 - Windows 10 Forums). It should be owned by your profile and ALL APPPLICATION PACKAGES needs read & execute

You may have better luck than me (or just enjoy it - I do) but you could have done a clean install in this time anyway.

That is what I (eventually) ended up doing after messing up all my permissions *Smile

If however you want to go along with fixing it and are not sure what permissions a certain directory should have just ask and I'll check it for you.

 

A clean install will fix it! Anyway successes are attained only with multiple failures.

 

When I try to access the properties of this folder in security it says under the security tab "You must have read permissions to view properties of this object, click advanced to continue"

So I click advanced and then it says the same again but under it says "Click continue to attempt the operation with administrative privileges"

And here is what I have inside...(name blanked for obvious reasons) *Edit* Missed the top two off the list so added another picture showing them as well.

 

That looks OK - it is the same as mine. (It is normal for it to ask to run with Admin privileges to see the owner btw).

Your problem isn't this directory though I don't think if it is working for another user.

Anyway this is what your authorities should look like (using the icacls command) for this directory and a random sub directory (happens to be Weather but they are all the same).

This is from a new untouched Windows installation. Code: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps>icacls "c:\Program Files\WindowsApps" c:\Program Files\WindowsApps NT SERVICE\TrustedInstallerF) NT SERVICE\TrustedInstallerCI)(IO)(F) S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204RX) S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE) NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMRX,W) NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMOI)(CI)(IO)(F) BUILTIN\AdministratorsRX) BUILTIN\AdministratorsOI)(CI)(IO)(RX) NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICERc,S,X,RA) NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICEOI)(CI)(IO)(RX) NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICERc,S,X,RA) NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICEOI)(CI)(IO)(RX) Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory LevelOI)(CI)(NW) Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files C:\Program Files\WindowsApps>icacls "c:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.BingWeather_4.9.51.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe" c:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.BingWeather_4.9.51.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe S-1-15-2-2040986369-264322980-3882385089-1970153872-3662121739-3363227934-2464603330OI)(CI)(RX) S-1-15-3-2040986369-264322980-3882385089-1970153872-3662121739-3363227934-2464603330OI)(CI)(RX) BUILTIN\UsersOI)(CI)(RX) NT SERVICE\TrustedInstallerI)(F) NT SERVICE\TrustedInstallerI)(CI)(IO)(F) S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204I)(RX) S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE) NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMI)(F) NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMI)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F) BUILTIN\AdministratorsI)(OI)(CI)(RX) NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICEI)(OI)(CI)(RX) NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICEI)(OI)(CI)(RX) Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory LevelI)(OI)(CI)(NW) S-1-19-512-4096OI)(CI)(RX,D,WDAC,WO,WA) Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files C:\Program Files\WindowsApps>[/quote] [MS-DTYP]: Well-Known SID Structures