Resolve permissions issue in Windows 7, 8 or 10
PROBLEM
Windows may deny access to actions such as installing software updates, deleting folders, customising Start Menu items. Often Windows will provide prompt you to contact your system administrator, or request Administrator privileges even when the account is the administrator.
Sometimes the problem can be caused by internal Windows errors, sometimes the issue is created when old accounts are removed.
Sometimes viewing the folder or file permissions will provide an error such as “You must have read permissions to view the properties of this object”, or using the takeown command will result in an “ERROR: Access is denied.” message.
RESOLUTION
While the solution can be implemented with the takeown command from the command line, this doesn’t help the average user too much.
Fortunately there are software developers that make the job easier. Make sure you are logged in with an Administrator account (if this is a home PC and you don’t know what this means, you probably already are logged in as an Administrator) then download the Take Ownership Pro software and install it.
Once installed, open the software, Add the folder you can’t access items in, then click Take Ownership. If Take Ownership Pro reports success, close it and try the task that was failing again.
If Take Ownership Pro reports failure the same process will need to be run in Safe Mode. To do so:
- Click on the Start button and type msconfig (which will start the search).
- Click on the resultant search item (which may show as ‘msconfig’ or may show as ‘System Configuration’ depending on your Windows version).
- Click the Boot tab.
- Check the Safe boot option
- Click OK and Restart Now
- Once Windows has started in Safe Mode, open Take Ownership Pro.
- Add the folder that is causing the problem
- Click Take Ownership and the result should show success.
- Close Take Ownership Pro
- Click on the Start button and type msconfig
- Open the resultant item
- Click the Boot tab
- Uncheck the Safe boot option
- Click OK and Restart Windows
- Retry the task that was failing previously.
