How to reset default file permissions for these directories?

Thanks Cliff S!

I'm on a ASUS G74SX-3DE except pretty much what is said on that page is the same as what I mentioned in the original post above as the first solution is:

Code:

sfc /scannow

which for me, when I did it 3 times as recommended results in:

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow


Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.


Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.


Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.


C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow


Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.


Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.


Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.


C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow


Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.


Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.


Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Then:

Code:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

which results in:

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth


Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.10240.16384


Image Version: 10.0.10240.16384


No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.

Then:

Code:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

which results in:

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth


Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.10240.16384


Image Version: 10.0.10240.16384


[==========================100.0%==========================]
No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.

then:

Code:

 Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

which results in:

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth


Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.10240.16384


Image Version: 10.0.10240.16384


[==========================100.0%==========================]
The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

It then mentions:

Code:

icacls "c:\programdata" /reset /T /C

In my case, what I did was using C:\Windows for example:

Code:

C:
CD \Windows
icacls * /T /Q /C /RESET

so the only difference is I'm specifying /Q.

From the icacls usage info:

Code:

ICACLS name /reset [/T] [/C] [/L] [/Q]
    replaces ACLs with default inherited ACLs for all matching files.

    /T indicates that this operation is performed on all matching
        files/directories below the directories specified in the name.


    /C indicates that this operation will continue on all file errors.
        Error messages will still be displayed.


    /L indicates that this operation is performed on a symbolic link
       itself versus its target.


    /Q indicates that icacls should suppress success messages.

What I am confused about here when it says "replaces ACLs with default inherited ACLs for all matching files." is will it also replace each subfolder and their files so if a file or subfolder is set as inherit/disinherit or the opposite of what it is supposed to be, will it reset it back to what it was by default. I noticed when I did that command, Start Menu -> Settings -> Accounts -> Family & Other Users:
Both Add a family member and Add someone else to this PC would open with Just a moment and the spinning cursor would not stop even after 3 hours but after the command above, it opens immediately. It does show Access Denied on some files when the command was run.

I tried it on C:\Users and the problem is it shows Access Denied and also file not found for files that have long names or links somewhere else.

The other things mentioned:

Code:

If this doesn't work, a person has a couple of choices:


1. Run dism /online /cleanup-image /restoreheatlh in admin cmd. I don't believe this advanced command was included in Win 7 by default, so a requirement for this would be to download the Windows 7 WAIK from Microsoft.com which would include the full Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment
2.Attempt to use dism with the /source command, however, the source must be either a Windows installation disk for your architecture of Windows, or an offline Windows installation of the same architecture which DISM can copy files from
3.The easiest way, although more time consuming, will be to use your Windows Installation Media to "upgrade" to the same version and architecture of Windows that is currently installed. This is called a Repair Install and it must be perfomed like an upgrade, i.e. the installation must be rain from within the booted OS, and the "upgrade" option must be selected. This will allow you to keep all installed programs and user data, although there may be a handful of programs and drivers that may need to be installed if they installed files into the %windir% [Windows Folder], as a repair install replaces all system files within the %windir% and a select few other locations.

I already did #1 as indicated above, have not tried #2. As for #3, it doesn't reset the file permissions because what happened was Windows would go to that light blue screen and I can see it install updates, reboot, install updates again on the light blue screen then it would reboot and stay at the light blue screen after it says Just a moment with the spinning circle for about 2 hours. Seems like Windows is keep fighting with the permissions. With the repair in-place upgrade, after installing, it logs into the account by default after the password but when I reboot, it basically goes to that light blue screen to perform the updates, reboot and then it would be stuck at the light blue screen with the spinning circle after the Just a Moment for about 2 hours. So it seems like this doesn't fix the permissions issue which icalcs did when I performed it on C:\Windows mentioned above. What I'm thinking about doing is maybe copy those folders in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps for things that I added which are no longer available elsewhere. delete C:\Program Files\WindowsApps as a folder altogether and let the Windows in-place upgrade install recreate it but is there a good way to have it recreate the start menu and the default tiles as it seems one cannot delete the C:\Users\<login>\AppData\Local\tiledatalayer folder as it will just create a new vedatamodel.edb file which will result in a Start Menu with no tiles and when the Windows in-place upgrade install is done, it will just use whatever vedatamodel.edb was already there so if it was broken, it would not fix it. I also noticed that even when I add a new user, the default apps do not work either and I always have to manually fix it for the user added.

Also saw this:
Resetting NTFS files security and permission in Windows | lallous lab

which is basically the icacls method and they have a new tool as well:
Resetting NTFS files permission in Windows lab

Got the original idea here:
https://www.winhelp.us/troubleshooting-windows.html

I'm starting to wonder if Norton is getting in the way of your repairs.

Have you tried taking ownership of the folders and files and then tried resetting their permissions?

I'm also curious, is there a reason you just haven't backed up your data files, 3rd party program installers and drivers and just tried a clean install?

It could be Norton but not too sure since there was a time I manage to disable Norton before doing the repairs. The thing is that Windows Installer will not overwrite the Start Menu and Default Tiles if the Database folder and files exist in the TileDataLayer folder and ofcourse tiledatamodelsvc would write new database files so when Windows Repair Install is done, the start menu will just be blank where the default tiles are. My thinking is that it can be the Windows Updates that is causing the problems in the repair as well as some updates that did not exist before might be the problem for all I know.

As for backing up data files, 3rd party program installers and drivers, the reason is this is basically a already built system and should I upgrade in the future, I want to get it back to the way it was out of the box if I need to sell it, besides, I don't have the installers for everything that came on the system and even ASUS doesn't provide it for download. On the ASUS ROG Forums, there are others who did a clean install and actually ran into problems with certain hardware not working. My issue is really minor as I've always managed to fix it manually except it seems like the default tiles created which I am not sure is dependent on when the install is done or if it's based on when the new account is created as I always create a new administrator account after the Repair Install to generate the tiledatalayer\Database files which I can use for the start menu and I have noticed with the August 11, 2015 install, all the default tiles link to actual installed apps, in this case default apps but with all the September 12, 2015 to repair installs of today, it seems the default tiles I have 3 tiles for I<3Radio, Minecraft Windows 10 Beta Edition and Flipboard but those apps are not on the system, is there actually a way to pin items linking to individual apps in the store without installing it? The resetting of permissions for other folders works fine but not with C:\Users as it would remove the users name from their folder so that process takes a lot of time to do even though I am the only user so need to do my own folder again manually. I noticed doing it the GUI way takes minutes but using the command prompt would take 4-5 hours to go through all the files.

I basically used the GUI tool I mentioned in the last post by checking everything except Reset hidden and system files which actually does a attrib -h -s on files which just unhides the files to make it visible but anyways, this is what it runs in a elevated command prompt using C:\Windows for example and it did keep the "All Applications Packages" in the permissions list for C:\Program Files, C:\Windows, C:\Users and C:\Program Files\WindowsApps:

Code:

takeown /r  /f C:\Windows\*
icacls C:\Windows\* /T  /L  /Q /C /RESET

The other reason is that this is my only working computer at the moment so upgrade installs would have minimal downtime as whatever the problems may be, I am still able to use the computer with just cosmetic issues which I cannot afford if I did a clean install as reinstalling apps is time consuming and I already am on time constraints with emails and such that are 6 years behind.

In any case, I already reset the permissions for the folders involved, now only inheriting myself back to my C:\Users folder,
and basically renamed the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps Folder so the in-place upgrade install would regenerate it from scratch, added a new Admin user account so I will run the Windows in-place repair upgrade install after deleting TIleDataLayer\Database in my own account so I can login as myself at the end of the install so it will recreate the Database folder just as a experiment to see what happens as I don't have the capability to go back to Windows 7 as the Windows.old folder is basically going back to the same version of Windows 10. When I get the default tiles back, then I'll do the Start Menu -> Settings part as it seems there are certain things like Cortana one has to setup on a in-place upgrade. I figure that the other route I can take is to basically get 10240 RTM fixed manually and then upgrade to a insider build instead just to see if it still has the same problem as I can easily go back to 10240 RTM. Ofcourse being a rocket scientist, I like to try to fix issues and learn something new at the same time. It's almost like if there was a hole in the wall in a house, fixing it is one way and tearing down the entire house to rebuild is another. Besides, should someone else run into similar problems, they will have a solution as someone has got to do it first. I have always upgraded my desktop machine ever since Windows 3.0 by just cloning the hard drive to a new one whenever I upgraded to newer motherboard/cpus and new hardware. Windows has advanced a lot since the Windows/286 and Windows/386 days before OS/2 came out.

I can see that:).
I prefer to at least try to fix first something first too.
But being I use Macrium, I have at least one updated image, at oldest a month old, unless I have installed new software and set it up, then I create a new image so if something happens I won't have to reinstall and setup. But even after fixing something, I sometimes reimage any how, if the system feels sluggish after.
One of the advantages of GNU is permission problems hardly exist But in Windows it's easier to find something in the folder/ registry hierarchy, where as Linux you need to look for the darn file in the correct folder...

I read about Macrium here and I was thinking of using it since ASUS splits my 1st 500GB HDD into a C: and D:. D: is empty and I have a E: which is a 2nd identical drive to the first so either I can clone C & D to E: periodically or I can image C: to E: but how exactly do you restore if you image should windows not boot, do you boot with a USB Flash Drive and then restore the image? The August 11, 2015 installation actually failed with the Start Menu not working but instead of doing a repair install, I tried to follow someone's youtube video that said to use system restore to restore to a earlier point which I did and Windows said it didn't successfully restore so I rebooted with a BSOD and then I went into that advanced menu thing and did a system restore to a earlier point and Windows worked again except the Start Menu's default tiles were gone, that was when I decided to see how the in-place upgrade worked. Linux or FreeBSD or any Unix for that matter is a lot easier to fix when it comes to permissions than windows as it seems lots of people had permission problems with Windows 10. On Android, all one needs to do is copy the *.apk in /data/apps which is the app itself and the folder in /data for the app and you can move it across devices instead of having to deal with a registry like Windows which is a lot easier, Linux/FreeBSD are like the former, all you need is the folders and the files and it runs well. I forgot to mention that just from this thread, have learned a lot, that the apps like Microsoft Edge or those in C:\Windows\SystemApps are all *.exe files as in Desktop apps while the ones in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps seems to be the newer modern apps which I still haven't figured out where they are stored and copied to yet. LOL. One weird thing is my Start Menu always doesn't work randomly if I did a reboot and then login and I would always know before I even click the start because Windows would show HDD Health complaining about it not being about to write _identity.bin to C:\Program Files (x86)\HDD Health, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling that but it makes no difference. The really weird thing is _identity.bin's timestamp when I check it is always when HDD Health was installed and not when I last rebooted Windows that it worked successfully. Ofcourse today, I noticed _identity.bin is also in C:\Windows except it has the time stamp of when Windows last successfully booted and the Start Menu still worked.

how exactly do you restore if you image should windows not boot, do you boot with a USB Flash Drive and then restore the image?

With Macrium one creates a WinPE recovery disk USB or DVD, one can also create a Boot Option, which the you're basically dual booting, but can change boot timeout to zero so you can boot to windows faster and then you can just use UEFI to boot to the boot option:


FYI: Setup Macrium Rescue to boot from an Internal/External/USB HD/SSD

The Macrium Rescue Environment

Sounds good, still waiting on my C:\Users folder to complete the take ownership before I icalcs it, never realize command prompt was that slow compared to the GUI. I'm thinking of upgrading my pair of WD 750GB 2.5" 7200rpm drives to the WD Blue Hybrid SSHD 1TB with 8GB SSD Cache 5400rpm drives and that can come in handy, seems like the SSHD part is better but I wonder if the slower spindle speed will hurt performance.

Almighty1 said:

Sounds good, still waiting on my C:\Users folder to complete the take ownership before I icalcs it, never realize command prompt was that slow compared to the GUI. I'm thinking of upgrading my pair of WD 750GB 2.5" 7200rpm drives to the WD Blue Hybrid SSHD 1TB with 8GB SSD Cache 5400rpm drives and that can come in handy, seems like the SSHD part is better but I wonder if the slower spindle speed will hurt performance.

This is for the ASUS notebook you mean and not for the desktop in your specs?
On my laptop(which being older is just my emergency backup pc) I have a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB drive which works quite well. That specific disk can take up to 2.5 Petabyte in writes before failing and comes with a 5 year warranty. I just got a 512GB 850 Pro for my desktop that comes with a 10 year warranty and a 2TB spinner for system images an libraries. People have had too many problems with the hybrid disk for my taste. But you can't possibly wear out a Samsung Pro.http://techreport.com/review/27909/t...heyre-all-dead

Yep, for the notebook.... I currently have a pair of Western Digital Scorpio Black 2.5" 7200rpm 750GB HDD's. There appears to be a 1TB Blue SSHD which is hybrid except the spindle rate is 5400rpm but the SS part is like a 8GB cache. I thought it was Seagate that had the bad reputation for Hybrid drives. I just actually had a Sandisk 200GB MicroSD card in my mobile phone die on me after 2 months, it won't write or format, it will read fine so atleast the data was backed up.

Almighty1 said:

Yep, for the notebook.... I currently have a pair of Western Digital Scorpio Black 2.5" 7200rpm 750GB HDD's. There appears to be a 1TB Blue SSHD which is hybrid except the spindle rate is 5400rpm but the SS part is like a 8GB cache. I thought it was Seagate that had the bad reputation for Hybrid drives. I just actually had a Sandisk 200GB MicroSD card in my mobile phone die on me after 2 months, it won't write or format, it will read fine so atleast the data was backed up.

The advantage of going all out SSD in portable devices(laptops & Notebooks) is your battery last longer because a lot less heat is produces(less active cooling), and if it should fall or get thumped it won't make a difference to the disk. If you don't transfer too much data, even the price worthy Sandisk SSD's are better than hybrid or spinners at a more affordable price per gigabyte..