Microsoft Office Forums

Go Back   Microsoft Office Forums > >

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 02-25-2022, 07:11 AM
Firefox1701 Firefox1701 is offline "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Windows 7 "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Office 2007
Advanced Beginner
"You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder"
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 43
Firefox1701 is on a distinguished road
Default "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder"

Basically, my question is: why?


Along the way, there have been a handful of folders that I've created and then later needed to delete, which have brought up this message. I'm the only person who uses this computer and have been for the best part of the last decade. I've always assumed I was the administrator, inasmuch as if I'm not, I don't know who is. I've tried 'taking ownership' of the folders in question: makes no difference whatsoever. I've tried a handful of other 'fixes' over a period of many months, also without success. I've tried logging in under the 'administrator' user name; makes no difference.


Basically, I just want some way to tell this fakakta computer that I'm it's boss! Or in other words, that no action I want to perform will 'require administrator permission' inasmuch as it will ( finally!! ) recognise that I am in fact the only administrator!


I believe my frustration may be showing ... but anyone got any ideas? I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate and have been throughout the period for which this has been happening.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 02-26-2022, 01:33 AM
wiganken wiganken is offline "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Windows 11 "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Office 2019
Expert
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 279
wiganken will become famous soon enough
Default

Maybe it is where the folders were created, not that you created the folders, that caused the message?

I'm just guessing here but were the folders located under a protected parent folder such as 'Program Files' or 'System'.

.................................................. ...........................

Another point - Did the folders contain files? I have had similar issues in the past whereby I had to delete the files first before the folder could be deleted. Maybe this is to force you to make 'considered' individual file deletion to ensure that unintentional 'blanket' file deletion does not happen. Again, I'm just guessing.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 02-26-2022, 05:53 AM
Firefox1701 Firefox1701 is offline "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Windows 7 "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Office 2007
Advanced Beginner
"You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder"
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 43
Firefox1701 is on a distinguished road
Default

Fair questions. To answer your first one, I would say not. Off the top of my head, one of the folders was created within the 'My Music' folder; another was created in a folder that I use to store Dropbox stuff in until I'm ready to delete it. I seem to recall that there was one a while back in the 'My Pictures' folder, as well; there have been others, but I can't recall exactly which ones at present. I wouldn't have thought any of these would come under the category of 'protected', at least inasmuch as other files and folders in the same parent folder can be and have been altered / deleted without problems.
Yes, the folders do contain files. I'm not sure why the computer would arbitrarily decide that the files in these particular folders should be considered any more carefully than any others, but at any rate, I get the same message if I try to delete the files individually.
Not that it would make it any less frustrating, but what puzzles me is why it seems to select certain specific folders at random ( mostly, seemingly, either pictures or music ), when other similar folders can be handled without difficulty.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 02-26-2022, 05:55 AM
Firefox1701 Firefox1701 is offline "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Windows 7 "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Office 2007
Advanced Beginner
"You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder"
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 43
Firefox1701 is on a distinguished road
Default

Actually: slight amendment to the above.
One of the folders which contained music files did allow me to delete the files individually but then would not allow me to delete the folder, even though it was empty at that point.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 02-26-2022, 07:28 AM
wiganken wiganken is offline "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Windows 11 "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Office 2019
Expert
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 279
wiganken will become famous soon enough
Default

Sounds like a random Windows bug, which will not get fixed because Windows 7 is no longer supported.

If it happens again though you could check that you actually do have 'Full control' of that folder. I can't think of anything else to try so good luck that the issue does not reappear.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 02-27-2022, 08:13 AM
wiganken wiganken is offline "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Windows 11 "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Office 2019
Expert
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 279
wiganken will become famous soon enough
Default

@Firefox1701 - I just found this utility (courtesy of my Computer Active magazine so credit goes to them). There is no need to install it if you download the zip file (which I have done) and then extract all files. See ThisIsMyFile 3.81 Deleting locked or protected files. .

I haven't used it but, if CA say it's OK, then it must be safe to use as long as you are sure the files are safe to delete. i.e. That they are indeed the files that you created and are not part of some program/system etc.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 02-28-2022, 08:34 AM
Firefox1701 Firefox1701 is offline "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Windows 7 "You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder" Office 2007
Advanced Beginner
"You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder"
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 43
Firefox1701 is on a distinguished road
Default

I would love to say that this has solved the problem - particularly since ThisIsMyFile has to reboot the computer in order to do ( or not do, in this case ) it's thing. However, as you'll have gathered, still no difference whatsoever. I don't know if I've missed something in the ThisIsMyFile interface, but if you simply drag the offending folder on to the desktop icon, the only option it gives you ( other than 'only info' or 'refresh' is: 'Reboot & delete without query ( no unlock )'. The rebooting thing seems a bit extreme, although I wouldn't even mind that, if it worked. If there's something I'm missing, please feel free to enlighten me, as whatever demon seems to be possessing these particular files and folders, it appears to be impervious to everything I've tried.
Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful for your ( or any ) suggestion; just increasingly frustrated and confused. It seems weird that you'd have to go to the lengths of using external software to delete what should be a perfectly ordinary folder containing a dozen or so photographs.
<Sigh>
Once again, any other ideas ( or expansion on anything I may be missing in ThisIsMyFile ) very gratefully received.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 02-28-2022, 10:46 AM
wiganken wiganken is offline &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Windows 11 &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Office 2019
Expert
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 279
wiganken will become famous soon enough
Default

I hope it is okay for me to include a photo scanned from Computer Active magazine content but if I give them all the credit then maybe it is. Maybe this photo helps: -
Attached Images
File Type: jpg ThIsIsMyFile.jpg (138.3 KB, 11 views)
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 02-28-2022, 11:37 AM
rollis13's Avatar
rollis13 rollis13 is offline &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Windows 10 &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Office 2016
Competent Performer
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Cordenons
Posts: 140
rollis13 will become famous soon enough
Default

Hi to all.
To help the suggested tool ThisIsMyFile to do it's best I would carry out, before using it, a Scandisk just to get rid of issues on the disk. Here is a LINK for information. I would also say that it may not be necessary to preform the "Scan and Recovery bad sectors" (doesn't hurt though (takes time) if you don't have a SSD disk). In certain circumstances a Scandisk is all you need to unlock files with issues (won't be enough here, it needs the tool).
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 03-01-2022, 12:23 AM
Firefox1701 Firefox1701 is offline &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Windows 7 &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Office 2007
Advanced Beginner
&quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot;
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 43
Firefox1701 is on a distinguished road
Default

I will carry out a full scandisk, just to be safe, the next time I re-start the computer ( I would do it now, but I've invested so much time in this over the past two or three days that I'm getting little else done! ).
The ThisIsMyFile idea just doesn't seem to be working, for whatever reason:
If I drag and drop the folder to the icon, the MoreThisIsMyFile window comes up and the only available option other than 'only info' and 'refresh' is 'Reboot & Delete without query ( no unlock )'.
If I either use Alt+F4 or click the cross in the top right-hand corner to come out of that window, it returns to the 'ThisIsMyFile 3.81 - Admin (wow64)' window. Apart from 'only info', there are three options: 'unlock', 'delete', 'reboot & delete'.
If I click on 'unlock', it returns to the 'MoreThisIsMyFile' window that I've just escaped from, still with only the option of 'Reboot & Delete without query ( no unlock )'. If I click 'delete', same thing. If I click 'reboot & delete', same thing. As stated previously, even if I do click on 'Reboot & Delete without query ( no unlock )' in the 'MoreThisIsMyFile' window, it doesn't work; it will reboot the computer, but the folder is still there and undeletable.
Also tried 'DropPermissions' - absolutely no effect.
Tried reducing User Account Control to minimum - this does appear to have made a difference, though not a helpful one: now, instead of telling me I need administrator permission, it's telling me I need my own permission - which is to say, it tells me 'You require permission from xxx to make changes to this folder', where I'm already logged on as xxx ( with, as far as I can tell, full administrator permissions and privileges, as should rightly be the case since I'm the only person using this computer ).
Any ideas how I can either give myself permission to delete a folder or else delete it by some other means?
I'm not too proud to beg ...
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 03-01-2022, 01:15 AM
wiganken wiganken is offline &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Windows 11 &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Office 2019
Expert
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 279
wiganken will become famous soon enough
Default

Just a thought - Could your user profile be corrupt? This might cause Windows to 'see' that the folder/files are not yours and is stopping you deleting them?
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 03-01-2022, 02:22 AM
Firefox1701 Firefox1701 is offline &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Windows 7 &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Office 2007
Advanced Beginner
&quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot;
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 43
Firefox1701 is on a distinguished road
Default

It's possible, although I'd have thought that would manifest itself in other ways and / or considerably more often than has been the case ...?
If so, is there any way to 'fix' a user profile without major surgery?
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 03-01-2022, 02:41 AM
wiganken wiganken is offline &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Windows 11 &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Office 2019
Expert
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 279
wiganken will become famous soon enough
Default

I'm not sure. Maybe carry out web searches on the subject? That's what I would do.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 03-01-2022, 10:57 AM
wiganken wiganken is offline &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Windows 11 &quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Office 2019
Expert
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 279
wiganken will become famous soon enough
Default

@Firefox1701 - If you are able to copy the problem files then try this to fool Windows: -

1. Copy the files to a USB stick then restart the computer.

2. Then try to copy the files back from the USB stick into the original location and you should get a warning about 'A file with this name already exists - Do you want to replace it? Click on 'Yes'.

3. I'm hoping that Windows will allow this to happen and the new file will have different permissions that will fool Windows into then allowing you to delete it.

Doesn't cost anything to try.

Last edited by wiganken; 03-02-2022 at 01:07 AM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Excel 2003: VBA "Function" causes "#VALUE!" errors after running "insert/delete row" custom macro Matt C Excel Programming 2 01-08-2022 06:03 AM
Can I delete "Deleted Items" Folder in Outlook 2013 ? sportflyer Outlook 0 08-15-2017 07:18 AM
&quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Word doc is opened on recent list, pop up: "you don't have permission to open", deleted. wordhasfailedmetwice Word 3 11-17-2016 04:09 PM
How do I delete the names under "Exceptions" when I use the "Restrict Editing" feature in Word? MengS Word 0 02-25-2015 02:57 PM
&quot;You'll need administrator permission to delete this folder&quot; Batch instruction works or ".doc" in folder, but not ".docx" raymondroe Word VBA 4 02-15-2015 01:19 AM

Other Forums: Access Forums

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 09:48 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
MSOfficeForums.com is not affiliated with Microsoft