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#11
What did the Continue button do? Did it give you a different error box?
Do the whole owner thing on the main folder that you want to delete (which contains all the files)
If that doesn't work, do the owner thing on the Steam folder itself.
Windows is extremely confusing in its permissions and file ownership.
If Taking Ownership of the files does not work, then the ACL and permissions are misconfigured.
Permissions precedes the ownership, you can have ownership but incorrect permissions in accordance with the ACL Access Control Lists (Windows).
Microsoft - How Permissions WorkPermissions enable the owner of each secured object, such as a file, Active Directory object, or registry key, to control who can perform an operation or a set of operations on the object or object property
I suggest that you open powershell (Search > type powershell > Right click > run as admin) and execute this command:
This command restores permissions to default for all files contained within C:\ quietly.Code:icacls "C:" /t /c /q /RESET
Followed by this command once completed:
This command restores full permissions to the Administrators on the computer, which I presume you are an Administrator.Code:icacls "c:\" /t /c /q Administrators:f
And reboot the computer, and finally attempt to delete the file after attempting to retake ownership.
If that does not work, then I suggest using a third party utility known as UnlockIT:
Downloads - UnLock IT
And download, install. Ensure you select customized installation.
Right click the folder that contains the files or the files individually that you would like to delete, and follow as here:
Then this should delete all files you right clicked upon after restarting the system.
You should not run into issues regarding permissions after this, and if you do, post again and I'll look into it.
Side note: often times malware tends to hijack a system and fluff itself in permissions that benefit itself.
@Hydrate, you must be careful with your suggestions.
No it doesn't. It replaces ACLs with inherited ACLs. A default Windows install does not take inherited permissions from root.
Again, no it doesn't. It grants full access to administrators group which Windows does not do and would be unwise to do.
There is no way (apart from a clean install) to reset default permissions any more.
If OP wants to delete a specific file a safer way would be to change the permissions on that specific file (by taking ownerhip and granting permissions) or use unlocker which will do it at boot.
Changing permissions on the whole C drive is a bad idea.
Assuming there is nothing you want in your recycle bin, if it is corrupted you can delete the $recycle.bin file(s) from all your partitions and they will be regenerated next boot.
Fix: Recycle Bin is corrupted
My apologies, I should have known better to reset simply the affected targeted directory.
Again, if there are any issues please let me know thread starter.