Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Windows 10  

@Brink (Shawn Brink),

I just cannot thank you enough for this particular tutorial. (The fact that you have written all of these tutorials, and so elegantly, and so thoroughly, just blows me away.) You were a lifesaver for me on Friday.

Back story:
I was able to make my Dell 5150 desktop with Windows XP Pro last for almost 13 years (November 2005 - October 2018). I know most people wouldn't brag about that, but for me, it was an accomplishment. For the past three years, I've had a brand new Dell XPS 8900 still in the delivery box just waiting on the living room floor for the day that it was all over for the old machine. That day came last week. I regularly back up all of my data files but not quite on a daily basis. So before I shut down the old machine for ever, I was able to make a last backup of my Outlook Express DBX folders and address book - files that change daily that I didn't get in my last backup. As you know, those reside in the Windows folders and so they did not always get backed up with my personal files. So I finished the backup and thought I had it all together and shut down the old machine and pulled it from its place on the floor.

I removed the hard drive from the old machine and listed the rest for free on Craigslist for someone to use as parts. Someone quickly came and got it. Fine with me - I am big on recycling and I hate for anything to go into a landfill that doesn't have to. A win-win.

So I did a Windows 10 clean install to an SSD for the new machine and got it running all pretty and nice. Used webmail and my cellphone for a few days and left email as the last thing because I knew it was going to take some research and work to deal with all those old Outlook Express DBX folders. I have a lot of history and very important stuff in there. So I put it off for last.

Finally ready to get started on email. I take a look at the backup folder and in it were only files starting with the numeral 0 through the letter D. ACK! WHAT?! Every file starting with the letters E through Z was MISSING! Oh, noooooo! (Probably because I used the old copy/paste technique and due to RAM/memory/hardware limitations. I know better now and would use something like FreeFileSync.) But I knew I still have my old hard drive. OK, I'll just pop that in the new PC and recopy the old OE folder to the new PC. Which I did.

I'm sure you can guess what came next: as I'm drilling down in the old hard drive folders to the necessary folder, I got a message that said something to the effect of "You don't have permission/authority/rights to access this folder." I didn't even have READ access. I about had a stroke! "What?! I made you what you are!" I said to the non-compliant hard drive. (I had also received a letter from my Homeowner's Association about 30 minutes earlier, so it was not a good day.) I took five minutes to collect myself. I have already GIVEN AWAY the old PC so popping back in there was no longer an option! YIKES! I will never be so hasty again.

So I started researching. There are several tutorials on how to take ownership of files, but YOURS was the only one I found that had the all-essential process shown in the right-hand screen of Step 4 (OPTION 4) above for folks that have NO rights to a particular folder. And you make it so clear, and the print screens are so great! And the instructions are all highlighted in yellow! I mean, it is INCREDIBLE!

I have used many of your tutorials in the process of fine-tuning my new machine, but none as valuable as this particular one.

I just cannot tell you how grateful I am and how appreciative I am of your skills and knowledge, and your willingness to share them with the world. You changed my life (or preserved it from a great deal of frustration) because I was, indeed, able to get to my old OE file and copy ALL of the folders. I am both thrilled and relieved to have my old email. I cannot thank you enough. I don't know of a way to repay you, but I promise to pay it forward.

Sincerely,
Carol

instead of logging off, restarting or anything else, this worked for me, (for hiding THIS PC on left pane of explorer)
go to task manager, (ctrl + shift + esc)
kill windows explorer
from the upper menu select file > run new task
enter explorer.exe

viola!

So... it turns out I got some bad advice from an “Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP” over here… File/Folder permissions preventing app launch?

He had me run

Code:

TAKEOWN /F C:\ /R /D Y

which I see on here is ill-advised.

Running it resulted in this...


I tried doing a System Restore of Windows 10 at Boot, but found that all of my restore points are gone.

So far, Windows 10 seems to be working as normal. However, it seems returning things to normal might be a good thing to do.

It sounds like doing a Repair Install of Windows 10 is my best bet?

@Brink, thanks for the help. I successfully saw it thru to the other side.

However, since it didn't fix my original reason for trying to reset permissions the wrong way, is it safe to say it really isn't a permissions issue?

@Brink, reinstalling the app (Adobe's After Effects v16.1.1) hasn't helped. The annoying thing is the app works on every user account I've setup and tested on my laptop, except for my Microsoft user account (where I do everything).

Adobe has now suggested that I create a new user account and transfer all the data to it... but they add that "after transferring everything there is chance that the issue will reoccur."

I was hoping to find info regarding this on your website, but I'm not finding a tutorial that directly addresses this issue as well as things to watch out for when attempting it.

What is your advice?

- - - Updated - - -

I should add that the Microsoft guy that previously led me astray with the TAKEOWN command now says that perhaps "something is corrupt in your user profile."