Permissions experts, help me put my programdata folder back in order

Not sure if a quick fix exists for this, as i just compared the programdata folder itself against a clean win10 VM and the permissions up top at least, are solid.

I ran a script to delete the windows.old folder and i got some access is denied errors and it failed and so i used the built in means with disk cleanup and thought that was that.

First thing i noticed was off after relogging my apple ID was signed out. i couldnt sign into icloud at all. kept saying failed. Tried itunes, same thing.

I had hoped it was some kind of apple software issue so i repaired the installs to no end.

After that I went ahead and did an in-place upgrade. Simply made more work for me as it modified a bunch of stuff back to windows choosing and still didnt fix it. I uninstalled itunes and icloud at that point, figuring id have to install them fresh.

Before I even got to that I opened my wake on lan app. It was barren of entries I had saved. I thought it was a casuality of the in-place upgrade I did. So i went to re-add my workstations back and I was hit with an error. This time it gave me the path to the folder it errored on over access. It was in programdata.

I went ahead and navigated to it, and was greeted with a prompt for permission to access the folder. I granted it, and after that - the app began seeing my workstations again.

It was at this point I realized that somehow, someway, microsoft in their infinite wisdom kept windows.old active to some degree. Something in there was junctioned or symlinked or tethered somehow to my current windows install, when my script took ownership to delete it - it blew up my actual windows.

So now im up xxxx creek.

What are my options? Resetting windows isnt one. This install is years of work running. Fixing it is my only option. Naturally I had just cleaned out my backups with the intention of starting a fresh backup set right after i deleted the windows.old folder. Stupid.

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hmm, looks like it basically did this to everything



does this mean if i go each item by each item, remove the administrator rule, and make the owner whatever the second one is (looks to be system on every one ive checked at least thus far) - i should be good?

Brink said:

Hey mate,

If you like, you could try using the Reset permissions of this folder, subfolders and files item from the context menu added by the tutorial below on the ProgramData folder to see if it may help.

Add Reset Permissions to Context Menu in Windows

that scares me. but im at the point that I have little to lose i suppose. I do have a backup from about 2 weeks ago, but ive done an immense amount of work since then.

i'll give it a go. somehow i forgot all about that context menu item.