Unable to Delete Folder. 'You Need Permission To Perform This Action'

I have just installed Vista, and am tidying up my start menu (classic view),
however there are some folders that it won't let me delete.

When I try to delete them, it comes up with a message saying 'you need
permission to perform this action'! Need permission?!? From who?!? I am
the only user of the machine.

I looked at the properties and it's a read only folder, but it won't let me
change this. I have gone into the security tab and given everyone
permission for full control, but still can't get rid of the read only, or
delete the folder.

Any advise before my PC will literally be a Windows machine, when it gets
thrown out of one.

If the folder is one of the System folders- Extras and Upgrades, Games,
Maintenance, etc you may be able to make it a hidden folder. You can then
ignore it if you haven't selected "Show hidden files and folders" in Folder
options> View.

You may not be able to delete one of these folders.

Open an Administrator Command Prompt

Type attrib -r -a -s -h del [drive] path] [foldername] Press Enter.

[When responding to posts, please include the post(s) you are replying to so
that others may learn and benefit from the issue]

Thank you for your reply, however that's hiding the problem, as opposed to
curing it. I do actually always change the folder view settings to show all
hidden files anyway, so it wouldn't work for me.

I have found a workaround from 'alanbriggs' post, whereby I opened the
folder and deleted the individual files. Then, I
could eventually delete the folder (once empty). Not good, but at least a
workaround was possible.

Looking at other posts on this subject, it appears that this is a problem.

I am going batty, I am trying to delete a folder as well (MSN) I have no
need for it and I am stingy with my HD space. NO MATTER what I do it
tells me I need permission or I don't have permission. God I hate vista.
Someone please help me.

I know a few ways to get rid of folders, depending on what the problem is.
But an easy suggestion for you to try first is to make a new folder. Then
move the folder you cannot delete into the new folder by dragging it onto
it. Then try deleting the new folder.

when a file from some folder is used by some program you can
not delete the folder, BUT YOU CAN MOVE IT TO SOMEWHERE ELSE ? does it
make sense ?

after all these posts, time waste, and though all these valuable
efforts and ideas, no one yet could figur out how to simply DELETE A
FOLDER from MY OWN PC in Vista!!!

I just ran into this issue and it really angered me. I figured out a
solution though. Right-click on the folder, select Properties. Click on
the security tab, Click Administrators, Click Edit, find your "user
name" in the list and select it. Press OK, OK, On adminstrators, select
the delete permission and click on OK. I got some message that the ACL
list or something could not be updated, but it didn't matter. I was able
to delete the folder with no problems after this.

I have this problem as well on some folders - for some reason this
problem occurs whenever i use the "compress contents to save disk space"
option on the drive itself. A quick way around the problem is to merely
delete everything inside the folder then delete the folder itself - It
seems you can only delete/rename these problem folders if they are empty
already - you may have to do the same for all the subfolders first (work
your way up the folder structure)

Also if this fails remember to check the security tab of properties to
see if your user has full permission to access the files - you may have
to add yourself to the list and add permissions.

If you are getting the message "You need permission to perform this
action" when trying to delete a folder, it may be the case that one of
the programs inside that folder is currently running. Open your task
manager (Control + Shift + Escape) and view the Processes tab. Sort by
the Command Line column and look for any programs open from the folder
you are trying to delete. End task on them all, then delete the folder.

Quick solutions that sometimes work:
1. Turn off User Account Control
delete the file
Tun User Account Control back on

2. Start | type Cmd.exe | right-click on cmd.exe in the Programs list directly above | select Run As Admistrator

Navigate to the directory containing file you want to delete (using CD command).

Delete the file using DEL command.

Use EXIT command to close command window

[nitesh mehta]

Here is how I fixed this problem on my computer.

Before reinstalling vista on my computer i had accidentally installed a game (Grid) on my backup hard drive, as you may have guessed i had to delete, now that i had reinstalled vista. Like you i am set as an admin on my computer as i am the only user, this being the case it still did not let me delete the folder, pain in the a... i went into the security tap in properties and it just had "Dan (Dan-PC\Dan)",though this account is an admin i decided to add "Administrators (Dan-PC Administrators)" to the list, it worked immediately after.

hope this helps

Issue solved : those old folders are only authorized for installer. You
need to change the user "trusted installer" to "administrators". I did
it and it is your only solution for a NTFS partition "Ultimate virus
protection partition". Goto this site for instructions on how to change
ownership for those old folders.

Playing with permissions gave me no joy. The Cmd.exe solution is what
worked for me. I did the following:
1. Start | type Cmd.exe | right-click on cmd.exe and selected Run as
Adminstrator
2. Navigate to directory using cd command
3. use rename command to rename folder (synatx is 'rename
<directoryname> <newdirectoryname>')
4. type exit to close cmd.exe
5. navigate to now-renamed folder and delete it.

did you try in safe mode?

[whopua]

I don't know much about computers and I want to do this CD command but I don't know what it is. The issue I am having is a gadget that stopped recieving news headlines. In the gadget window you can click on a gadget and uninstall it. However if you track it down under program files the folder is still there. The NEW gadget i installed reads the same old headlines and never renews. Btw I did check the settings and even changed them in order to change them back while the gadget was running and it didn't change anything. I am convinced that the material in this folder is corrupt and needs to be eliminated in order to download a fresh gadget with it's own files/folders. How do I do this... I mean what do I type under cmd.exe in order to get to where I need to go which for me to find is c - prgram files - windows sidebar - RSSfeeds.gadget <--- that last being the one I want gone!
Any help is appreciated, thanks so much!

[bucinaus]

Thank you, this is exactly what I had to do to delete my pesky file and application. This hidden process is a dirty trick.

No, I did not have to do this in Safe mode.

[madle]

I have had the same problem with 2 folders in my Local Disk (c:), they both had small padlocks on them and I tried all kinds of ways to delete them!
They both had duplicated information in them and totally useless to me!
This had been going on for months...then eureka!!
I clicked on one of the folders and then chose (shared Folder Synchronization)
start synchronization and hey presto...they both dissapeared before my very eyes!!
Hope this helps others and I hope they don't come back any time soon.

Madle

[vinny_n]

What I did to delete stubborn folder/files (I kept getting the same error as others) was to right-click on windows explorer, run as administrator, then drilled down to the folder (using the newly opened Windows Explorer) and deleted it. Didn't get any errors!