Changed permissions in Vista for all users - nobody can do ANYTHING

[CyberPitz]

This is also including the Administrator account.

Right click on C:\ go to Properties -> Security -> denied access to it for "All Users". Unfortunately, now not a single account can access the C:\ including the admin accounts on accident.

Friend is freaking out a bit...help?

 

[AtomicSpark]

Haha. Window's inherited permissions are fail. You're pretty much SOL.

 

[CyberPitz]

NOOOO Don't ssay that Sparky!

 

[DigiQ8]

I hate windows permissions shit.

 

[Krynn72]

I tried this on a empty folder and got stuck just like your friend did. I was able to get permissions by using this registry hack and "Take Ownership" of the folder.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...ership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

He should be able to run it as admin, get ownership, and then be able to re-assign all the permissions again.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Nice find. I've only seen that option when you access other Windows installs from Windows.

 

[CyberPitz]

He can't "Run as admin" on anything. Somehow, the "Set for all users" means even the stock administrator account. WTF Windows.

 

[AtomicSpark]

He *might* be able to copy files. Try that and back as much as he can. After that, you know what to do.

 

[Krynn72]

He can't "Run as admin" on anything. Somehow, the "Set for all users" means even the stock administrator account. WTF Windows.

The take ownership thing didnt work?

 

[Sir Phoenixx]

Try turning UAC off, go to Control Panel->User Accounts and Family Safety->User Accounts->Turn User Account Control On or Off, and try disabling it.

Also, you can try sticking your HDD in as a slave drive in someone else's Vista PC, so their PC boots up like normal to their Vista OS off of their HDD, just with your HDD data accessible. Then try changing the permissions on your HDD.

 

[99.vikram]

Try turning UAC off, go to Control Panel->User Accounts and Family Safety->User Accounts->Turn User Account Control On or Off, and try disabling it.

I assume he lost access to UAC settings too.

Also, you can try sticking your HDD in as a slave drive in someone else's Vista PC, so their PC boots up like normal to their Vista OS off of their HDD, just with your HDD data accessible. Then try changing the permissions on your HDD.

This.

And Vista? Really?

 

[AtomicSpark]

If you change the permissions using another Windows OS, it won't work. Unlike Unix-based Operating Systems, Windows' permissions are set by GUIDs, not by user/group (UID/GID). Most people experience this when they delete a user and then recreate it later with the same username. Even though the username is the same, the GUID isn't (and should never be, that's the whole point). They'll end up with the old permissions just being a random string of characters where it used to list the deleted username.

You're best off just grabbing a Linux live CD (or be stubbern and make it a slave drive in another Windows PC), back up all the important files, and reinstall.

EDIT: New facts! The GUID of the "All Users" group supposedly is a fixed GUID. If you really want to try, you can do what was suggested and try to add the "All Users" group and give them Full Access to the C: drive. I will still suggest that you start over, once you back up your files, no matter which direction you take.

 

[Sir Phoenixx]

It worked here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com.../thread/d136248c-33ce-4ca1-8b7a-b44c101116c9/

So last month I did end up getting a 2.5 SATA HD enclosure, removed the drive, and plugged it into another laptop as a USB drive. At first I didn't have access to the drive this way either (the "f*ck!!"I yelled reverbed through my condo bldg.), however unlike before I was able to access the 'Advanced' section of the HD's security tab and re-enable full-access to the drive.

After that, 2 days of major back-up activity ensued (both to a brand-new NAS drive and many DVDs). Finally, I re-installed the drive back into the original laptop to see if access would still be denied.

Surprisingly, it wasn't! Apparently ulocking the drive in slave mode unlocked it for good. So, all has been back to normal with the laptop and the HD - full file access and full admin rights/UAC/system rights.

Also - System Restore does now show a restore point. It's almost as one didn't show up as available before b/c I didn't have full Admin rights, but that would be weird... Anti-virus hasn't found anything otherwise.

So all seems good...I'm very lucky It's funny, up until this debacle I was actually defending Vista to those that bashed it in casual conversation. It's good to know that even with technology and Vista though, busting out a screwdriver (i.e., real tools) can fix the problem.

Thanks again.......

Pretty similar situation, tried to prevent "guest" account from accessing C drive, accidentally locked C drive from everyone/himself. Eventually took his HDD that he screwed the permissions up on, stuck it in another PC just so it's data can be accessed, and fixed the permissions. I don't think there would be a difference permission setting-wise between having it as a real slave drive on SATA/IDE over having it as a slave USB drive (either way it's still not the primary drive). You can at least try this before reformatting and reinstalling Windows and everything else you had on there. Should take a half hour at most.

 

[CyberPitz]

Well then, thanks guys. I'll let him know this news. We figured he was SOL, but wanted to at least try. He'll have to find someone else to take the laptop apart, I'm not going to risk breaking something, knowing my clumsy hands.

 

[No Limit]

I think Atomic Spark is right about about the All Users GUID, I can't seem to confirm though. If this is the case all you would have to do is put the drive in another computer as a slave and give the all users group full access. Hopefully he didn't set deny permissions on the root drive, you might or might not be able to remove these when you add the drive as a slave drive, I'm not sure on this point.

 

[The Brick]

Try declining System from accessing the windows folder. It's a quick and very efficient way to completely **** up a pc.