Windows 7 Folder Permissions - Unable to Revert Back

[tabbymulla]

Hi All,

I am in a problem here. A day before yesterday, I was messing up with folder permissions and unfortunately I messed up pretty badly.

The problem is I changed the folder permissions of C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files (x86) to Deny for all users. These included

Authenticated Users
System
Administrators
Users

I was logged in with an Administrator Account. Now the problem is I cannot access the above folders with any user. All my applications installed in those folders do not work.

I tried several solutions available on the net like changing ownership, using THE Administrator account, etc but to no avail and these folders are still locked.

Is there anyway I can access these files or shall I resort to the ultimate step i.e. re-install windows.

Please help

Regards,

Tabby

 

[Trouble]

Probably the easiest thing to at least try first would be a restore point prior to the date and time you actually edited the Access Control List (permissions)
Failing that there are a number of command line tools like iCacls or SubInACL but they do require a particular skill set and an understanding of certain unique syntax.
My recommendation (If system restore doesn't do it for you) would be to have a look at something like SetACL Studio Helge Klein | Home of SetACL which comes with a 30 day free trial and offers a reasonably intuitive interface that may help get your through the rough parts. I've attached an image of what the folder permissions look like for that particular folder within the program as a guide.
Not sure how you got to where you are now without taking ownership in the first place and possibly even breaking inheritance from the parent container, so you may want to reverse that by re-enabling inheritance, confirming that for the most part permissions have returned to almost normal, making sure to cascade those permissions down to sub-containers (folders and files) and then maybe even returning TrustedInstaller to it's rightful place as owner of the directory, you will actually have to physically type in NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller. So you should be able to do most of this manually within the properties of the folder under the security tab with a little patience and perseverance.
Good luck and keep us posted
Regards
Randy

 

[tabbymulla]

My recommendation (If system restore doesn't do it for you) would be to have a look at something like SetACL Studio Helge Klein | Home of SetACL which comes with a 30 day free trial and offers a reasonably intuitive interface that may help get your through the rough parts. I've attached an image of what the folder permissions look like for that particular folder within the program as a guide.

Thanks man, The SetACL trial worked like a charm. I ve got access of those folders and now I dont have to reinstall windows. The only difference is that now every type of users have Full Control even standard users, however, thats not of concern to me as I dont have any Standard user account on my PC.

About the System Restore, I always turn it off immediately after installing windows as it wastes a lot of time during the installation of numerous softwares that I always install after installing windows. Guess I should turn it on after that.

Thanks again and best regards,

Tabby

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

System Restore has saved me more times then I can remember.
Usually from my own stupidity.

But you should also have a system image, and a bootable DVD.
I use Acronis, but the one that's built into Windows works.

Mike

 

[Trouble]

Thanks man, The SetACL trial worked like a charm. I ve got access of those folders and now I dont have to reinstall windows. The only difference is that now every type of users have Full Control even standard users, however, thats not of concern to me as I dont have any Standard user account on my PC.

About the System Restore, I always turn it off immediately after installing windows as it wastes a lot of time during the installation of numerous softwares that I always install after installing windows. Guess I should turn it on after that.

Thanks again and best regards,

Tabby

You're welcome. Glad to hear that you managed to resolve your problem and thanks for posting back and updating your thread with the solution that worked for you.
Yes...... System Restore is a valuable tool and believe it or not works incredibly better in Windows 7 then it has in previous versions of Microsoft's OSes. So I would definitely suggest turning it back on as sometimes it can help you out of a peculiar tight spot and is always worth a shot at the very least.
Messing about with system folders like the Windows Folder or the Programs Files is not often or even generally a good idea. If you want to play and learn more about things of that nature (inquiring minds want to know) then I always suggest creating a "TEST" folder in the root of C:\ throw a couple inconsequential new text documents in there or copy an image or two or an mp3 or two in there and use that folder to practice on. Examine the permissions that are inherited from the parent, change ownership, block inheritance, copy inherited permissions and change them about to your hearts content. That way there is nothing critical at risk.
Regards
Randy

 

[tabbymulla]

I will surely give System restore a chance now. However, system images require too much space. If I were to make an image, I would make it after installing all the softwares that I usually install. But it amounts to as much as 200 GB. And considering the releases of latest upgrades of softwares, an image usually becomes outdated in like 2 months or so. So I dont think image is a good option for me.

Tabby

 

[Trouble]

Many imaging software products use a compression ratio of 2:1 so depending on what you are imaging the outcome will often be half the size you might expect. Many such products also support upping that ratio to reduce the actual size of the image even further but will often take longer to perform the task as a result.
Personally I use Acronis True Image 2013 and an external USB 3.0 hard drive to image my OS drive as well as my data drive. Provides an extra bit of peace of mind but that's just me. I guess it depends on how important your critical data is and how much down time you can afford.
Best
Randy.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Just buy an external USB drive, they are cheap and you don't really want your image file on you hard drive anyway.
If the hard drive fails or gets corrupted in some way you will lose everything.

I'm hyper, I have 4 of them and have everything backed up twice with one copy on each of 2 of the drives.

Mike

 

[tabbymulla]

I have one 1 TB portable hard disk where I keep backup of my personal folder and overwrite with "Do not replace" settings every week. It includes all the setups and documents.

Making images of around 200GB regularly takes a lot of time as compared to just adding new files to the backup folder every week and reinstalling windows in case computer gets infected with virus or harddisk gets corrupt.

However this has made me to save every revision of file with different name which I find sometimes handy as previous revisions are always available for use.

Tabby

 

[Trouble]

Excellent. That's actually all that matters. As long as you have a backup solution that works for you and protects your critical data.
Thanks for the follow-up.
Regards
Randy

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi again.

One last comment.

While I do make disk images of both of my hard drives, what's more important is you data files.

In addition to my compressed backups I save everything that's really important...

My Photographs

My Software downloads, with the registration numbers

My Music Files

My bussiness job files

My animations

My documents folder etc.

All uncompressed just by copying the files to my external hard drives.
This is especially easy in Windows 8 because it scans the destination folder and asks you if you want to overwrite duplicate files, so you can just say no and copy only new and modified files.

I have had backups get corrupted and unusable.
I happend quite recently in fact.

Never defragment drives with compressed backup files on them, that's probably what killed my backup file.

Anyway even though I couldn't use my system image and had to reinstall Windows and all my software, I didn't lose a single file.

Better to be safe then sorry.

Mike

 

[Jackhole]

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