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

Phil0sophy said:

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.

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

lx07 said:

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)...

1. 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.
   
2. %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.
3. %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 :)

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.

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.

Phil0sophy said:

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\TrustedInstaller:(F)
                             NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(CI)(IO)(F)
                             S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(RX)
                             S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
                             NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX,W)
                             NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                             BUILTIN\Administrators:(RX)
                             BUILTIN\Administrators:(OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
                             NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE:(Rc,S,X,RA)
                             NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE:(OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
                             NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(Rc,S,X,RA)
                             NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
                             Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory Level:(OI)(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-1-15-2-2040986369-264322980-3882385089-1970153872-3662121739-3363227934-2464603330:(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    S-1-15-3-2040986369-264322980-3882385089-1970153872-3662121739-3363227934-2464603330:(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    BUILTIN\Users:(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(F)
                                                                                    NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                                                                    S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(I)(RX)
                                                                                    S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                                                                    BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE:(I)(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(I)(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory Level:(I)(OI)(CI)(NW)
                                                                                    S-1-19-512-4096:(OI)(CI)(RX,D,WDAC,WO,WA)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps>

[MS-DTYP]: Well-Known SID Structures

lx07 said:

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\TrustedInstaller:(F)
                             NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(CI)(IO)(F)
                             S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(RX)
                             S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
                             NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX,W)
                             NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                             BUILTIN\Administrators:(RX)
                             BUILTIN\Administrators:(OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
                             NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE:(Rc,S,X,RA)
                             NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE:(OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
                             NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(Rc,S,X,RA)
                             NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
                             Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory Level:(OI)(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-1-15-2-2040986369-264322980-3882385089-1970153872-3662121739-3363227934-2464603330:(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    S-1-15-3-2040986369-264322980-3882385089-1970153872-3662121739-3363227934-2464603330:(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    BUILTIN\Users:(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(F)
                                                                                    NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(I)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                                                                    S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(I)(RX)
                                                                                    S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(GR,GE)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(OI)(CI)(IO)(F)
                                                                                    BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE:(I)(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE:(I)(OI)(CI)(RX)
                                                                                    Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory Level:(I)(OI)(CI)(NW)
                                                                                    S-1-19-512-4096:(OI)(CI)(RX,D,WDAC,WO,WA)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps>

[MS-DTYP]: Well-Known SID Structures

This is what mine shows... (replaced name with username)

C:\>icacls "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps"
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller: F)
NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller: (CI)(IO)(F)
S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204: 0 (RX)
S-1-15-3-1024-3635283841-2530182609-996808640-1887759898-3848208603-3313616867-983405619-2501854204: (OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE : (Rc,S,X,RA)
NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE: (OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE : (Rc,S,X,RA)
NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE : (OI)(CI)(IO)(RX)
BUILTIN\Administrators: (OI)(IO)(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators: (CI)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM: (OI)(IO)(F)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM: (CI)(F)
Username-PC\Username: (OI)(CI)(F)
Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory Level: (OI)(CI)(NW)

I can't even use the command for the bing weather, it just tells me the file isn't found.


Shall I just give up and reinstall clean? I mean what else could it be?

I would clean install, honestly. You could use the other account that works but sooner or later some other problem will come an d bite you.

As for checking an individual sub-directory it depends on what you happen to have installed. All the version numbers and gobbledegook after the ~ are dependent on what version of Windows 10 you have and when you last updated your apps.

Just type icacls "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\M and then press the <tab> key. It will fill in the first thing in the directory beginning with M which in my case was "Microsoft.BingWeather_4.9.51.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe" as I've removed quite a lot. It doesn't matter what it is as all the sub-directories should have the same permissions.

Ok I have severely screwed up now, followed the guide for windows clean install and created a a boot USB, deleted the two partitions on my main drive (left my other two hard drives as they have the backup on them) and it's now telling me windows can't be installed on this drive.

"The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems windows can only be installed to GPT disks"

I have already deleted the partitions, what am I going to do?

Right quick update, after the absolute day from hell with this PC, I have somehow managed to use my 30+ years of experience to actually not mess something up for once haha.

After the utterly horrendus outcome earlier I actually managed to install windows 7 from disk on uefi, after hours of messing around (simple things like trying to find a corded mouse and reinstalling about 50 drivers) I started trying to update to windows 10, it wouldn't update from windows, it just kept getting stuck, so then another 40 mins of googling I finally managed to get it to update and here I am, on windows 10 again, all drivers updated, all old files from my last install reinstalled from back up .

Now all I have to do is tweak the privacy settings, sort out my graphics drivers and lots of other little tweaks and I will be back to how I was before.

I would like to say this has been easy but it hasn't LOL, kind of feels rewarding knowing that I have made it back though guys, back from the dead haha.

Anyway, thanks for all the help, I will know next time not to try and take ownership of C:\ never ever again.

Yes, its an old post, but I thought I would at least throw this in there, if you can make an ACRONIS image backup, do it. Then if you buy the workstation software, you can pick and choose what you restore VERY easily.