Windows – How to Remove Denied Permissions from a Group for a Folder

group-policySecuritywindowswindows-vista

I'm hoping the answer is yes.

Due to my ignorance, I denied the 'Everyone' group all read access from one of my folders containing needed information because I did not want people on my network being able to view my data. I didn't realize that I could not remove myself from the everyone group, and therefore I can no longer view the data/files in the folder.

I can view all other information on the c:\ drive and such, just not this folder. Is there anyway to remove the denied rights from the 'Everyone' group on this folder? My account is an administrator, however from the GUI it will not let me edit security information on the folder when I right-click it and go to the security tab.

Windows OS : Vista

Best Answer

You will need to take ownership of the folder.

Launch a command prompt as administrator, and then run:
takeown /F C:\Path\to\the\folder

This should take ownership of the folder, and allow you to read and change permissions on it. From here, right-click on it in windows explorer, select Properties, select the Security tab, click Advanced, click Change Permissions, and then select the Deny permission and click Remove. Click OK until the windows are closed.

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