Permission of a folder in Windows.old.

Windows.old is owned by TrustedInstaller.

Trying to change ownership of that particular special filepath to an account in the Administrators group or to the built-in (but disabled by default) Administrator account is likely to fail when trying to change ownership back again. Windows just doesn't have a foolproof way of doing this.

The result of any error in ownership is - at the very least - likely to ensure failure if trying to revert back to the previous version of Windows if needed. IMO that's the fatal flaw in changing ownership of resources owned by either SYSTEM or Trustedinstaller.

I suggest using 3rd-party utilities like NirSoft's AdvancedRun or NSudo, i.e. to run programs (e.g. PowerShell, cmd, xcopy, etc.) in the same special user context as the files/folders' owner rather than change ownership of those same files/folders.

Plus - for safety's sake - use one of these utiities to copy Windows.old to another location... then work on the copy, not the original.

Hope this helps...

Malok, the path gets this: "C:\Windows.old\Users\topvi\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftEducationEdition_8wekyb3d8bbwe \LocalState" - the exact same location.

@RickC, thank you for posting. These instructions help, but please tell me which program I should use, how to copy Windows.old and how to get my world back.

Thank you all.

-James

james12121 said:

the path gets this: "C:\Windows.old\Users\topvi\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftEducationEdition_8wekyb3d8bbwe \LocalState"

please tell me which program I should use, how to copy Windows.old and how to get my world back.

1. which program I should use - IMO NirSoft's AdvancedRun is easier to use (as it has a GUI) than NSudo's commandline.

Alternatively, use Sordum.org's PowerRun. It has an even easier-to-use GUI than AdvancedRun. In my experience there's little to choose between AdvancedRun and PowerRun but the latter already has PowerShell and CMD pre-configured... so it's the easiest for first-time use:



2. how to copy Windows.old - If I was going to copy an entire protected folder then I would use PowerShell or Xcopy (cmd's copy command works with files, not folders). For example, to copy from C: to D: then something like this:

PowerShell

Code:

Copy-Item -Path C:\Windows.old -Destination D:\Windows.old -recurse -Force

or
Xcopy

Code:

Xcopy C:\Windows.old D:\Windows.old /E /H /C /I

It looks like you don't need the entire Windows.old folder structure, just a buried sub-folder... so adjust the folderpath accordingly to only copy the sub-folder that you need, either from an elevated PowerShell or CMD console run from, say, PowerRun.

3. how to get my world back - If you've already been fiddling with ownership on or within the special Windows.old folder then I don't know what to advise except start over. IMO you can never be sure what worked and what didn't... hence my advice to never try to fiddle with ownership of resources (files/folders and/or registry items) owned by the SYSTEM or TrustedInstaller special accounts. It's easy to change ownship but you can never be 100% sure that reversion has worked to propagate permissions and inheritance back to the original state. Others may disagree but... here be dragons best avoided.

Hope this helps...

Thank you, RickC.

I will do this tomorrow, you obviously spent some time on that post

In terms of fiddling, I haven’t done too much. The files and folder are recoverable for sure.

I will use powerrun and power shell copy my files to D, but I hope you understand they are ‘link files’?

-James

james12121 said:

I hope you understand they are ‘link files’?

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean they are 'link files'. Do you mean symbolic links, to files/folders rather than the physical files/folders themselves? Or have I misunderstood?

See this image. The little blue shortcut icon.

Yes, those are shortcuts, i.e. .LNK files.

I've done a bit of background reading on the Copy-Item : Could not find a part of the path error message and it appears that there are several reasons why it can error out.

My apologies - I also fear I've misled you... because I've been able to copy folders/files owned by TrustedInstaller without using a third-party utility like PowerRun.

I used robocopy.exe within an elevated PowerShell console instead of Copy-Item. I haven't used this method before because Robocopy's syntax is more complex than Copy-Item... but, at its simplest, robocopy <source> <destination> /mir should do it. I've just used this to copy a protected folder and files from C:\Windows\System32\dism without issue.

Try this within an elevated PowerShell console:

Code:

robocopy C:\Windows.old\Users\topvi\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftEducationEdition_8wekyb3d8bbwe -Destination D:\MinecraftCopy /mir

Hope this helps...

It was Mentioned #21 use dir /a will show junctions destinations.

Code:

C:\Users\UserName>dir /a
 Volume in drive C is SYSTEM
 Volume Serial Number is 2688-C7C4

 Directory of C:\Users\UserName

01/05/2022  12:42 PM    <DIR>          .
01/05/2022  12:42 PM    <DIR>          ..
10/10/2021  05:01 PM    <DIR>          .thumbnails
01/05/2022  12:32 PM    <DIR>          .VirtualBox
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <DIR>          AppData
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     Application Data [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming]
12/08/2021  12:23 PM    <DIR>          Contacts
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     Cookies [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies]
01/05/2022  12:38 PM    <DIR>          Desktop
12/11/2021  10:42 AM    <DIR>          Documents
01/04/2022  11:25 AM    <JUNCTION>     Downloads [\??\c:\downloads]
12/11/2021  10:42 AM    <DIR>          Favorites
12/26/2021  09:11 AM    <DIR>          IntelGraphicsProfiles
01/05/2022  08:22 AM    <DIR>          Links
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     Local Settings [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Local]
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <DIR>          Music
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     My Documents [C:\Users\UseName\Documents]
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     NetHood [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts]
12/08/2021  12:23 PM    <DIR>          Pictures
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     PrintHood [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts]
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     Recent [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent]
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <DIR>          Saved Games
01/02/2022  01:39 PM    <DIR>          Searches
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     SendTo [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo]
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     Start Menu [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu]
12/08/2021  12:22 PM    <JUNCTION>     Templates [C:\Users\UseName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates]
12/08/2021  12:23 PM    <DIR>          Videos
01/03/2022  07:35 PM    <DIR>          VirtualBox VMs
11/20/2021  02:34 PM             9,656 _viminfo
              11 File(s)      4,793,812 bytes
              30 Dir(s)  447,271,325,696 bytes free

It will also show where dead ones where leading.