Vista won't let me delete files and folders.

[Lars XLN Audio]

Feels like I've tried everything now. Certain files (like exe files) and
folders (if they contain exe files) just can't be deleted. I get "You need
permisson to do this". From who? Bill Gates himself? God? I'm the
Administrator and only user of the machine.

I tried activating and logging in as the "hidden" Administrator, but that
didn't help at all.

I 've tried with UAC on and off. With it on I get the joy of clicking about
6 times before I end up with the "you need permission" (shouldn't that be
checked first??) No wonder people turn that "feature" off...

I can rename the exe files and usually delete them after a reboot, isn't
that very strange?

Vista has been everything people say it is (not good)..
- Media Player was broken, but seems to work now, it actaully stops playing
when you close it.
- I've been getting a "Parts of Logos has stopped working" or something like
that error message at every startup for the last weeks.
- Sleep mode worked the first week only. Now it never wakes up.
- IE7 crashes at least once a day.

I've used XP for years and it was never this broken.

[Bob]

For deleting issues:
Add "Take Ownership" to right-click menu in Vista

For sleep issues:
Go to Advance Power Settings.
Set hard drive to turn off a minute or 2 before sleep.
Set Hybrid and Hibernate modes to "Off"
Under USB settings select "Disable"
Under Multimedia select "Allow ....."

To disble UAC prompt and still have UAC security:
Run Regedit and navigate to
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
Change the value of ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin from "2" to "0".

[llama]

Is it possible this deleting issue is a bug?
I keep having a similar problem with folders containing vob files from
backing up some of my dvds; I delete the folder but one of the files
remains and so the folder obviously does too.

Trying then to delete either this remnant file or the whole folder does
one of two things: either I get a dialog that I need permission to do it
(UAC is off... I'm administrator...) if I try shift-delete. No way can
I seem to get enough 'permission' to succeed; or else if I just try to
delete then the file disappears from Windows Explorer until I click on
the folder to delete -that- - the folder remains and the file reappears
inside it!
I've tried playing these vobs but can't, and GSpot is unable to open
them ("Access denied...")

If I reboot then the files are gone! Just the folders remain,which can
now be deleted no problem.

Doesn't that suggest that Windows thinks the files are still there when
in fact they -have- actually been deleted but 'ghosts' remain behind?

It's very annoying to have several Gigabytes of 'virtual' files just
cluttering up the place.

Is this the same issue that others are having here? :confused:

[Ultravox]

I tried the take ownership, and I still cannot delete the files. I have also
shut down the service which could have beenusing the files... Any other
suggestions?

[silverbob]

I have the same problem, and apparently many other people are in this
predicament. When I google the error, I get lots of hits, but no real help.
The typical answer is to take ownership, but that doesn't work.

I'm the only user of this machine. I'm an administrator on the machine. The
UAC is turned off. On XP, as an administrator, I could do whatever I wanted.
Now, vista has created some super administrator monster that won't let you
manage your own machine. I'm ready to trash this OS and go back to XP.

you need to take ownership plus change permissions...
takeown

[silverbob]

Is there more to that? I found this earlier

cd %userprofile%
icacls . /grant "%username%":(OI)(CI)(F) /T /C /L /Q

but got an error on the first command, dir not found.

There's also something about getting a privileged command prompt. I don't
know how to get there. I've changed all the menus to classic, so I basically
just do a Run > CMD to get a command window.

[Dave]

I have this in a batch file named setowner.bat

takeown /f %1 /r /d y
icacls %1 /grant administrators:F /t

to run, open a cmd window and type

setowner c:\"foldername"

[R. C. White]

I've not been following this whole thread, but it appears you haven't yet
managed to open an "elevated" Command Prompt window.

Yes, that gets you the normal Command Prompt window, but that runs as a
"standard" user, just like your normal administrator account. There are
several ways to get the elevated CP window. Here's one way: Click Start,
then type "cmd" into the Search box; cmd.exe should appear as the first
"hit" at the top of your screen. Right-click on that cmd.exe and choose Run
as Administrator from the context menu. You'll need to furnish
Administrator credentials to get past this point.

This should produce the CP window, as usual, but if you look carefully at
the Title bar, you will see that it says "Administrator:Command Prompt".
Since you've already provided the Administrator password, any command or
application launched from this window will "run elevated"; that is, with
Administrator privileges.

If you've ever used MS-DOS, or the Command Prompt window in Vista or WinXP,
you should feel at home here because this window emulates MS-DOS so well
that some users have called it "a better DOS than DOS". Type any of the
familiar DOS commands followed by "/?" to see a mini-Help file showing all
the switches and parameters available with that command. For example: Dir
/?

Enter the Set command to see a long list of your environment variables. One
of the variables should be %userprofile%. Mine says:
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\RC

Yours probably says "USERPROFILE=C:\Users\SilverBob, or something similar,
using your own UserName. So when you type:
cd %userprofile%
you should cd (change directory) to SilverBob's User folder.

Once in that directory, type:
icacls /?

That should tell you what each switch and parameter for the icacls command
does. Note especially what icacls /grant does, and remember that the single
period "." means the current directory/folder. Then type Dave's next line
at the prompt:
icacls . /grant "%username%":(OI)(CI)(F) /T /C /L /Q

Now that we've told you step by step what to do, please tell us - in as much
detail - just what you did and what result you saw. "I tried it" doesn't
tell us much; "didn't work" doesn't help us help you very much, either.

[silverbob]

Thanks for the very explicit explanation and instructions. And, I apologize
for not providing better feedback.

But, I have solved the problem. During my search for an answer to this,
I've collected several bits of information, including the "takeown" and
"icacls" commands, and turning off UAC. There seems to be two ways to turn
off UAC. I'm relating this from memory because I'm not at my home Vista
machine right now, but at my more familiar XP here at work.

Here's the place where I had previously turned off UAC.

1. Open up Control Panel, and type in "UAC" into the search box.
2. Click the link for "Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off".
3. On the next screen uncheck the box for "Use User Account Control (UAC)",
and then click on the OK button.

And, although the instructions didn't include a reboot, one was performed
anyway due to another issue. Unchecking this box as above apparently doesn't
do the job.

The other method, which I tried last night, did cure the problem. The steps
were like this:

1. Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> System Config
2. Continue through User Account Controls prompt
3. Select Tools -> Scroll down and select Disable UAC
4. Click Launch -> Reboot machine

Afterwards, I was able to delete the files that I wanted.

[R. C. White]

Thanks for the report back. I'm glad you found a solution.

I hope you've turned UAC back on now, since the problem is fixed. UAC seems
very intrusive for the first week or so after a new installation of Vista,
while we are continually installing applications and tweaking the system to
fit US until we get Vista tuned to our own way of working. But once
initially configured, the benefits of UAC far outweigh its irritations - in
my experience. YMMV.

[Lars XLN Audio]

I tried the UAC thing described here but it didn't work for me. I'll try and
set aside some hours to try the DOS thing described too. Or maybe just throw
away Vista and reinstall XP. I'm guessing that will save me a lot of time in
the long run.

My Mozilla Thunderbird wants to update, but Vista won't let it. It's just
getting very tiresome. Very very tiresome. :(

I would really like to know: Will these issues be fixed, or is Microsoft
calling these issues "features"? If so I'm jumping ship for sure.

I wouldn't recommend Vista to anyone at this point, but feel free to try to
win me over. :)

[Indelible]

I have a similar problem but it isn't just any old files or folders that
are annoying me.

I have my main HDD divided into 3 seperate partitions. At one point,
two were OS partitions and one was a storage partition but recently I
took the choice to take away my XP Pro partition. I decided to extend
the Vista partition to take over the old XP partition. What has occured
is human error - during the tedium of the installation. I didn't check
what partitions I was reinstalling Vista to and ended up placing it on
the storage partition.

I now have two folders -- F:\Windows and F:\Program Files(x86) -- that
I wish to get rid of. Problem is that I can't delete the folders due to
permissions.

I'm going to run through the suggestion by RC tonight to see if i can
adapt it to my specific situation but I was wondering if there was
anything else I needed to do to get rid of them?

Any help is much appreciated.

[Indelible]

I tried running elevated CMD and using the takeown command, followed by
cacls to take ownership of F:\Windows and F:\Programs Files(x86) and
chnage my permissions and this seemed to work but when I came to
deleting the folders, I was still not allowed to do so.

Just so all are aware, F:\Windows is displaying as being 0 bytes in
size but it isn't 0 bytes in size by any stretch of the imagination.

I may resort to a Linux boot disc if this keeps up :-P

Add "Take Ownership" to right-click menu in Vista

[R. C. White]

You may have a bigger problem than you've told us. :^{

The \Windows folder is THE BOOT FOLDER! Asking Vista (or any Windows) to
delete that is like asking it to commit suicide by chopping off its own
head.

Unless, of course, it is the boot folder for some OTHER operating system.
While you are booted into Vista, the WinXP boot folder is "just another
folder" and should be easily deleted - IF you have permission to delete it.

Boot into Vista. In Disk Management, which volume is identified as (Boot)?
The \Windows folder in THAT volume is currently the boot folder and
currently undeletable. Vista should be able to delete any \Windows folder
on any other volume.

Of course, if you are booted into WinXP, then you will not be able to delete
its boot volume. And neither Vista nor WinXP care much what drive letter is
involved; they really deal only in terms like "Disk 0, Partition 3". That's
why I always give each volume a name, which gets written to the HD and does
not change when I boot into the other OS.

WHERE is this displaying? ALL folders normally display as 0 bytes.
Hovering over the folder name in Windows Explorer will usually produce a
display of the size. (It might be like "Size larger than 583 MB", which is
what mine currently displays.)

I'm not very experienced in permissions and such; I don't know if anyone -
even THE Administrator - can "take ownership" of the current boot volume or
boot folder.

[rana]

I have the same problem. I downloaded a file and cancelled before the
dowload was complete. Now the uncompleted downloaded file is sitting on
my desktop and cannot delete the same.

I have tried the registry, the DOS the control panel setups etc... as
mentioned earlier for this post but does not help. Cannot delete or move
the file.

How can I get rid of it and can't Vista be good and work like XP?

Nope tried after reboot as well and the file when I try to delete says
calculating time remaining... FOREVER :mad:

Boot into safe mode and then try to delete the file.

If no joy,

Add "Take Ownership" to right-click menu in Vista