How to gain full control over the system32 folder?

HelloMy computer's username is Steve and the PC's name is Steve-PC.I wish to have control over my system32 folder and all its subfolders and files, so I go to Windows | System32 | Properties | Security tab and see this:



and I click on the Advanced button and get the System32 Advanced Security Settings dialogue box.



I click on that 'Change' link at the top of that dialogue box, and a 'Select User or Group' dialogue box appears:



What do I do next, please, to give Steve full control over the System32 folder?

Thank you.

Steve

Welcome to the forum.
Sorry, but from a security standpoint that is a really bad idea. Even on general principles modifying the security of system folders is strongly discouraged. It is essentially an open invitation for malware to make a home in your computer. There are other problems as well. Windows was not designed to work that way. I have heard of it being done but with rather less than satisfactory results.

SteveHi said:

What do I do next, please, to give Steve full control over the System32 folder?

This is the heart of your system and changing permissions here can cause havoc if you don't know what you're doing. You already have access to most of System32 as an administrator anyway, what more do you need? With respect, if you need to ask how to change ownership or permissions you don't know enough to risk giving yourself full control.

Hello

Thanks for your replies and concerns.

If I type this in Windows PowerShell

Code:

Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse | Where {$_.extension -eq “.mp4”} | ForEach-Object { $_.FullName }

I should get a list on screen of all MP4 files on my C drive. The file extension is irrelevant. Instead, I get this:

Access to the path 'C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup' is denied.

That is, I do not have permission to access RtBackup which is a folder in system32 and so, I am prevented from working as I should be able to in PowerShell.

If it's possible to have full control over that RtBackup folder - without having control over the entire system32 folder, - then that would be fine.

How would I do that, please?

Get-ChildItem shouldn't require full access, just read access. So all you need to do is go to that folder, view it's security properties and add your account with read-only access.

Alternatively, are you running PowerShell elevated with Admin rights?

SteveHi said:

If I type this in Windows PowerShell

Code:

Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse | Where {$_.extension -eq “.mp4”} | ForEach-Object { $_.FullName }

I should get a list on screen of all MP4 files on my C drive. The file extension is irrelevant. Instead, I get this:

Access to the path 'C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup' is denied.

That is, I do not have permission to access RtBackup which is a folder in system32 and so, I am prevented from working as I should be able to in PowerShell.

You say 'instead', but when I run that command it turns out to be 'as well' - ie. I get the full list of .mp4 files AND the access denied message. That particular folder is heavily protected, not even Administrator has access, only SYSTEM has control. As such, you are unlikely to find your .mp4 (or any other files of interest) there. It would be better to just ignore the error, in fact you can tell Powershell to do just that.

Code:

Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where {$_.extension -eq “.mp4”} | ForEach-Object { $_.FullName }

Apparently...

The directory C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup stores ETW trace files (extension .etl) for real time event trace sessions.

windows - What is stored in %Windir%\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup? - Server Fault

Many thanks to you all for your replies.

Bree, this worked with no errors:

Code:

Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where {$_.extension -eq “.mp4”} | ForEach-Object { $_.FullName }

as did this:

Code:

Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where {$_.extension -eq “.mp4”} | ForEach-Object { $_.FullName } > C:\myMP4.txtC:\>

I didn't know that

Code:

 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

existed, so many thanks indeed!

Steve

I am not quite sure how to add kudos or a thumbs up?

SteveHi said:

I am not quite sure how to add kudos or a thumbs up?

Glad I could help - there's a 'thumb' at the bottom left of each post, if you wish...