How to delete $Windows.~BT folder

I have spent a lot of time trying to reinstall Windows 10 on my three year old Dell Inspiron desktop, but cannot do so. I'm no techie, but it seems to me that it is a $Windows.~BT folder that is preventing me from doing so. From what I have read, Windows should have done so ten days after I upgraded from 8.1.

I have tried everything that I found online to do so, but nothing works. I was however, able to remove the $Windows.~WS folder. The $Windows.~BT folder appears to be empty, however, when I try to just delete it, I receive the dreaded "You'll need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder" error message, even though I am the only person assigned to the computer. I tried to change the administrator setting, but again, nothing seems to work.

I got so frustrated that I bought a new Inspiron a couple of weeks ago. I've been wanting another computer as to have a backup and to run Media Player, freeing up the new Dell for my photography. It seems that Media Player slows down both Photoshop and Picasa programs.

I've reinstalled Windows many times over the years, and never had any problems (ok, not many) until Windows 10 came along. Is there a simple way to remove this troublesome folder so I can reinstall 10?

Thanks!!!
Steven

StevenSpring said:

The $Windows.~BT folder appears to be empty, however, when I try to just delete it, I receive the dreaded "You'll need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder" error message, even though I am the only person assigned to the computer. I tried to change the administrator setting, but again, nothing seems to work.

Welcome to TenForums!

That is normal behaiour. Any action that requires admin privileges will trigger that prompt. That is because (for safety) most of the time you are running processes as a standard user, even if your account is an administrator. Just click 'Continue' and the action will go ahead with admin rights. If you are only a standard user, clicking 'Continue' will bring up a UAC prompt asking for the password of an administrator account, type it and click 'Yes' to complete the action. Either way, $Windows.~BT can be deleted, I've done so myself many times.

If you don't get the UAC prompt with a 'Yes' button, then it means you have no administrator accounts on your PC, which could explain the trouble you are having.

You should always have at least one administrator account on a PC for maintenance purposes. Some users have thought it 'safer' to change their login account to a standard user, not realising that if it's the only account on the PC they'll no longer be able to manage their PC effectively. Is that what you have done?

StevenSpring said:

I've reinstalled Windows many times over the years, and never had any problems (ok, not many) until Windows 10 came along. Is there a simple way to remove this troublesome folder so I can reinstall 10?

Thanks!!!
Steven

Ummm......if you want to re-install Windows 10 then you boot the computer from a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive or a DVD, select the custom install option, select each partition on the hard drive one by one and delete each one until you end up with an unallocated space. (If you have a separate partition created for your data files only then you keep that one.) Then you highlight the unallocated space and click next. No folders, including $Windows.~BT, on the C: drive will interfere with that because you are deleting the entire partition at the drive level.

Bree, thank you so much for replying so quickly to my post. You're right in that I was the only account created on the computer. I was able to figure out how to change the setting to the hidden administrator. At least I thought I did. It shows me as the administrator in the start menu and I have a different desktop (a blue/purple (I'm colorblind) screen with the Windows logo with a light shining through it). I first tried running disk cleanup, but I did not get the "clean up system files" option. I ran it again with the same results.

I then tried to delete the folder via file explorer but I get a "You require permission from SYSTEM to make changes to this folder" error message.

Did I not get signed in as the hidden administrator, or is this folder just being difficult?

Steve

StevenSpring said:

I then tried to delete the folder via file explorer but I get a "You require permission from SYSTEM to make changes to this folder" error message.

Did I not get signed in as the hidden administrator, or is this folder just being difficult?

Steve

You have to do two things, and you can do both of these from your standard user account with administrator privileges. 1. You have to take ownership of the folder, and click the check box that says apply changes to subfolders and files. Then 2. Add a permission to the folder for your own user account and assign it full rights, also checking the box for assigning the permissions to subfolders and files.

Lieutenant Commander, thank you for trying to help me with my problem. Properties shows that I have Full Control for Authenticated Users, SYSTEM, Administrators & Users. The Owner of $Windows.~BT is listed as SYSTEM, so I changed it to Administrators. But again, it will not allow me to delete the folder.

Something that I have noticed was that the folder was listed as Read Only, which I unchecked and applied the changes. However, every time I open Properties, Read Only is always checked.

Could this possibly be the problem? If so, any idea on how to fix it?

Thanks!!!
Steve

Document folders marked read only after upgrade to Windows 10 - Microsoft Community

I wanted to thank every one who tried to help me with my problem. Nothing worked. I had to give up because, as a life-long sufferer of depression, I had to quit before something terrible happened to my computer. Or to me.

Thanks for all your help!!!
Steven