Solved Going insane with Access Denied - please please help.

Mediaman09

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Now that I did my perfect fresh install of Windows 8 to a new SSD, on two machines, and got everything activated and working , I am "this" close to throwing in the towel, buying two more licenes , and upgrade to windows 7. In general I can load apps, and I have restored all my documents (to their own drive) - all good EXCEPT:

I cannot for the life of me fix these two problems, which are show-stoppers. Would be grateful for any help. I know its dead simple, but I cannot not solve it on my own.

1) ISSUE ONE - I cannot save a PDF file off the web and save it to my hard drive. When I try to save it to my own area on my data drive, it give me the error below , suggesting I cannot do that, and suggested another folder.
-I have already set Enable Protected mode OFF.
-I am signed in as Administrator,
-I turned UAC off ( or at least on the lowest setting).
-I turned Avast anti-virus off
-I turned Windows Defender off
-I turned Windows Firewall off
-I even changed the Permissions to give every possible user type full control.
-I have a licenced activated version of window's 8.

..but why cant I save a file in directory of my choosing, on my own data drive!! ? It should not have to be this hard, but I have no idea what else I can possibly do !! I have 4 other Windows 7 machines - none have this issue.

2) ISSUE TWO - I cannot save a text file in a Program Files subdirectory. I need to edit a script file.
-I can create file in that subdirectory
-I can rename files in that subdirectory,
-I can open files in that subdirectory.
..but I get Access denied when I try to save it. Why am I getting Access denied?

Same settings as in (1). Again it should not have to be this much work to save a text file!


cannot-save.PNG
cannot-edit-and-save.PNG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I even tried Take Ownership tips
-here : I'm an Administrator on windows 8 but still get Access Denied. How - Microsoft Community and
-here: "Access Denied" or other errors when accessing or working with files and folders in Windows

I am having the issues to two different machines - both Win 8.1, ; one 8.1 PRO, on fresh installs for each with brand new SSD drives. And on each machine, I have at least two user profiles, and these two issues still exiist on both profiles.

On Issue 1- the problem is still there.
On issue 2, even if I take ownership of all directories on all drives, I still have to continuously manually take ownership of any new files I create.


This is all so very tiring and seemingly hopeless. Surely others have had this problem and have a solution .. or is there indeed no solution?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Issue two:

Press - Windows key + X
click "Computer Management"
locate and click "local Users and groups"
click "Users"
Right Click "Administrator"
Click "set password.."
Click "Proceed"
Type in a suitable password and click "Ok"
Open the "Administrator"
in the general tab - Untick "Account Disabled"
Click "Ok"


Sign out of user and login in as the Administrator account you have just enabled.


Then navigate to the file you want to change ie your txt file.


Right Click > Properties > select the Security tab > click Advanced (at the bottom) > under owner click "Change" > Enter "Administrator" in the input box > click ok
Then under permissison entries, click "add" > click "Select Principal" Enter "Administrator" in the input box > click ok > Under "basic permissions", click Full control > click ok


Then try changing the txt file again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Server 2012 R2 / 8.1
... Then navigate to the file you want to change ie your txt file..

Thank you, but any solution that requires I repeat the process for every file I might want to edit in future, is not really workable. Besides I could not find any section called local Users and groups' under Computer Management.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
By any chance, did you disable Application Experience service?

Anyway, you'd have to uninstall your antivirus to test. Disabling alone does not help test at all in things like this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7601.18247.x86fre.win7sp1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self-built Intel based
    CPU
    Pentium D 925 3.0 GHz socket 775, Presler @ ~ 3.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel DQ965MT
    Memory
    Hyundai 2 GB DDR2 @ 333 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS DirectCU II HD7790-DC2OC-2GD5 Radeon HD 7790 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5
    Sound Card
    MOTU Traveler firewire interface
    Hard Drives
    1 Seagate Barracuda SATA II system/boot drive 80 GB, 2 Western Digital hdds - 1 is SATA II Caviar Black 1 TB attached to card (assorted media, page, temp), other is SATA I 420 GB (games, media, downloads)
    PSU
    Thermaltake 450W
    Cooling
    stock Gateway cooling, extra large fan in rear of case
    Keyboard
    Alienware/Microsoft Internet kb
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    Optimum Online, fast for US
    Browser
    Pale Moon
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky integrated into ZoneAlarm+Antivirus
The take ownership solution to this type of problem is actually step one of a two stage process, I often come across this type of issue when dealing with shared data drives subsequent to an OS upgrade, this is due mainly to the fact that although we see and use "User Names" the system sees users as their SID reference, this is regenerated by each OS at initialisation. So although the user name may be the same the SID is different and thus prevents access.

Enough of the reasons now to the practice :)

Go to the root of the folder tree you have issues with and follow the normal steps to take ownership

Now you need to go into the root of the tree again and give your, (Current), Username explicit permissions to access the files, in the case of data folders this would normally be full access.

As a last step, in the advanced security tab, use the change permissions option to cascade the set permissions at the top level down to the lower levels, ( there is a checkbox to apply the current settings to all lower levels)

There may be errors as the instruction cascades down and it may be necessary to manually navigate to these sub-trees and reapply the last two steps above, although I have seen quite large drive structures complete without any errors

This procedure may work for system drives but due to the virtualisation used in modern OS structures, (Vista and later), it may be only partially successful, and should only be used as a last resort.

Hope this helps :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro x64 x2 Windows 10 Enterprise x64, Ubuntu
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computing
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus nVidia GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 (2GB DDR5)
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 @60Hz + 1920 x 1080 @60Hz
    Hard Drives
    Internal
    Crucial 256GB SSD,
    WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 3TB,
    Toshiba HDWD130 3TB
    Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB,

    External (USB3)
    Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB
    2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs)

    NAS
    Seagate ST4000DM000
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Devil Red Tower
    Cooling
    Stock CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K710 & K270
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless M710 M185 & M570 Trackball
    Internet Speed
    37Mb/s Down - 9.5Mb/s Up
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    BitDefender Total Security 2017
    Other Info
    Also run...

    Desktop - 6Core 8GB - Windows 10 Enterprise x64,
    Laptop - Quad 8GB - Windows 10 Pro x64
    Netbook - Ubuntu
    2 x Nexus 7 Android tablets
    Samsung 10.2" tablet
    Sony Z3 Android Smartphone
    HTC One Android Smartphone
Hope this helps :)

Bingo Mr. Barman!

Adding the explicit account names in the Security tab, at the root folder, and letting it propagate, seems to have done it the trick.

I am assuming that :
- I will need to repeat the two-step process for any directory or drive that exhibits the issue (not a big deal if its a one-time task)
- the reason I did not see this on other machines is that those machines were new builds with as brand new drives. This machine was new boot drive but with my current and main data drive ( created prior to Win 8).

Anyway, great progress on this issue, and thank you again. The insanity has subsided for now!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
As the doctor would say, "Take as prescribed, Always read the label, and repeat as necessary" :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro x64 x2 Windows 10 Enterprise x64, Ubuntu
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computing
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus nVidia GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 (2GB DDR5)
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 @60Hz + 1920 x 1080 @60Hz
    Hard Drives
    Internal
    Crucial 256GB SSD,
    WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 3TB,
    Toshiba HDWD130 3TB
    Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB,

    External (USB3)
    Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB
    2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs)

    NAS
    Seagate ST4000DM000
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Devil Red Tower
    Cooling
    Stock CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K710 & K270
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless M710 M185 & M570 Trackball
    Internet Speed
    37Mb/s Down - 9.5Mb/s Up
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    BitDefender Total Security 2017
    Other Info
    Also run...

    Desktop - 6Core 8GB - Windows 10 Enterprise x64,
    Laptop - Quad 8GB - Windows 10 Pro x64
    Netbook - Ubuntu
    2 x Nexus 7 Android tablets
    Samsung 10.2" tablet
    Sony Z3 Android Smartphone
    HTC One Android Smartphone
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