Windows 10 Permissions Issues

Hi there, hoping someone can help, as this is driving me insane and I have Googled all over for a solution but with no success so far...

I have multiple applications which refuse to save into a certain folder - I get an error message that permission is denied. I believe this is because that folder has an old/defunct owner - the disk drive has moved across different PCs. I think the solution to this should be to reassign ownership of that folder to the main admin account I am logged into on my PC. However, when I try doing this, by going to Properties of the folder, going to Security tab, clicking on Advanced and then clicking Change next to the owner name, I get a dialog box asking me to select a user or group to assign as owner, but the list is blank. I don't understand why this is, can anyone help?!?

I have a temporary fix of running the applications as admin, but this is probably not good practice (!) and also means you have to click Yes at the UAC prompt every time you start the application, which is quite annoying. Would really love to get this fixed, very grateful for any help anyone can provide!

Am running the latest Windows build (1809). Sorry if haven't described the issue well enough, can post more details/screenshots if required...

Thanks!!!

Hmmmm. I suppose I could try that. It is my main docs folder with a lot of stuff in it though... and why would I do it from CLI or outside Windows?! I could just do it in Windows, no? I might try that if no-one can help fix it another way... thanks for the reply.

You need to take ownership of the folders using our tool Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10 | Tutorials

glastolover said:

I get a dialog box asking me to select a user or group to assign as owner, but the list is blank. I don't understand why this is, can anyone help?!?

What, like this one?



At that point you you should type a user name in the empty box, then click the 'Check Names' button (that will be greyed-out until you type something).

Bree said:

What, like this one?



At that point you you should type a user name in the empty box, then click the 'Check Names' button (that will be greyed-out until you type something).

Yes, exactly that one... thanks a lot! You solved my problem in that I have now changed ownership to the MS account which I am logged into Windows under.

Unfortunately this has not solved my issue... I was convinced it would!

I still can't save into this folder. I get this message:



Any idea why I am getting that message when logged into Windows as this MS account with admin rights?!

To clarify, I made sure the ownership change applied to the top folder and all subfolders. So when logged in as owning admin, any application really should have permissions needed to save in here, right?!

glastolover said:

Unfortunately this has not solved my issue... I was convinced it would!

The next step, now you have ownership, is to change the permissions and grant your user account full access.

Bree said:

The next step, now you have ownership, is to change the permissions and grant your user account full access.

Hooray!!!! Thanks so much, you are a superstar. Issue resolved.

I thought the fact that "Administrators" were listed in the permissions meant that all Admins had access, but apparently not. Now I added my specific login account, it works fine.

Thanks so much for your help, these UAC things in Windows are quite confusing, I am not (entirely) stupid!!

glastolover said:

Hooray!!!! Thanks so much, you are a superstar. Issue resolved.