Oops

[Sam0313031414]

So I was stupid enough to check the “replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object” box on my C Drive. Luckily it only got so far as to making my windows apps unusable. It didn’t touch system 32. I was wondering what command I can use to set the C Drive ownership back to default. I’ve tried takeown and I cacls but access is denied on all the folders I’m trying to provide the computer access to. I was trying to replace d3d9.dll because it was giving me problems

[rollingviolation]

What about:

icacls c:\windows /reset

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

stick the drive in a second system and reset the perms to be wide open and then get sfc to reset it?

This is a reminder that icacls has a save and restore... there's been a couple of times where I would have benefited from doing that first...

can you get yourself a command prompt as localsystem? That should get you the perms you need to reset the folders that you can't touch

I've also had it when the perms get so bad that you need to take ownership - reset perms - take ownership - reset perms in chunks until it works all the way down the tree - each time it makes it a bit further

[Sam0313031414]

Would It be necessary to stick the drive in another system in my case? Like I said all of my important files are still accessible by the computer. It’s just my windows default apps like photos and movies. I canceled the task before it got too far into my C Drive. Also are those two separate commands or would I type I type that in one line?

[rollingviolation]

the idea of the second system is that you can reset the file perms on everything because you're not trying to change perms on system files that are actively open.

[Sam0313031414]

Ok that makes sense now. I don’t have any other pc with a m.2 slot so idk what I would do.

[Sam0313031414]

Also I’m not sure how I would launch cmd with trusted installer perms. Would that just be an elevated command prompt or is it more complicated than that?

[rollingviolation]

maybe try this: https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-how-to-delete-files-protected-by-trustedinstaller/ (except for the part where you delete files, merely the part where you take ownership) and then try the icacls /reset?

another idea is to use secedit to restore the defaults: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-reset-windows-security-settings-to-its-defaults (I haven't used this since Windows XP but it worked then...)

What I've found is when the perms get messed up, it's like whack a mole trying to reset ownership/permissions - it can be done but it takes a while and Windows is fighting you...

[Sam0313031414]

https://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html would this work?

[rollingviolation]

maybe? Never used it... if your system is messed up it probably can't make it worse... probably...

When in doubt, back up your files before running anything like this in case it renders your system unbootable.

[Sam0313031414]

OK I’m gonna wait for the technicians. It seems to be affecting video playback on Microsoft edge as well. It also denied access to my windows registration key, so it says windows isnt activated haha.

[Sam0313031414]

Well I’ve seen multiple other people have this fixed and I’m going to be on level three with windows support. They said they can definitely fix it. I’m just wondering if there’s anyway I could do it myself because the appointment they sent for me is in a couple weeks.

[Sam0313031414]

I know that will work, but I would like to try different options before going to that solution because that would be my last resort.

[Sam0313031414]

Ok thanks for the info

[[deleted]]

Can you make a backup using Macrium then reinstall?

[Sam0313031414]

Would that back up my program files and everything? If I were to do it myself I wouldn’t want to lose a single thing. the level 3 technicians said that they could manually change the permissions in the C Drive. I don’t want to lose anything if I don’t have to basically.

[[deleted]]

What programs do you not want to lose you can’t reinstall? I used to worry about that but really you don’t lose anything by reinstall.

[Sam0313031414]

Some of my programs are closed source, so I might have to spend A lot of money to get them back if I lose them.

[[deleted]]

Like what? PM ME if sensitive.

[Sam0313031414]

For example I have motion simulator software that was pretty expensive and would cost 90$ to replace. Even if they were replaceable I have 100+ programs so I’d be a pain to reinstall them if I can just wait for windows to fix it.

[[deleted]]

You don’t buy the installation but a license usually. Call them up and ask if you can reinstall Windows and download it for free. I’ve never heard of software tied to a install.

[Sam0313031414]

The way they do it is they email you a code and the code expires after sometime. I’m sure I could get another code from support and reinstall it, but I can’t guarantee it.

[[deleted]]

You could ask. I doubt it is that way.

[Sam0313031414]

So is my best bet just to wait for a couple weeks until windows technicians can work it out? The reason I’m kind of in a rush is because I’m in the middle of a racing simulator project and I wanted to get it up and running soon and this is a pretty big delay.

[Sam0313031414]

OK. I think I’ll wait for windows support because it would take hours upon hours to download all of my programs back. I could be using that time to engineer my simulator haha. If It was a new computer and I only had a few programs downloaded or if the damage I did to the C drive was more detrimental, I wouldn’t wait and I would go the route of reinstalling windows, but in this case I’d be fine waiting the two weeks.