How do I gain access to files that Windows says I don't have permission to access?

Nuqel.E sneaked into my system win7.
I cannot get rid of it. PC Tools doesn't help. It
seems like it has to be loaded first. Cannot do that.
I thank you in advance.

Marty

Leo, do you have a similar process for XP Home platform?

I've never been able to resolve my HPFUD50.dll file issue, and therefore can't update. If I could delete that file, I could update my machine.

Best,
Dell

I found a .REG file that creates a shell command to automatically grant full rights to a file or folder. See below. It's been very useful and, I hope, not dangerous.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]
@="Grant Admin Full Control"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas2]
@="Grant Admin Full Control"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas2\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas]
@="Grant Admin Full Control"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

cacls * /e /g everyone:f

/e says to edit the existing permissions instead of replacing them (less likely to cause problems)

/g grants permissions

everyone:f grants full access to everyone

cacls has been deprecated in Windows 7

Actually the easiest solution is to just ditch the source of the problem - Windows.
Leave the hard disk in the pc and boot from a Linux live-cd - in there you can access all your files without the fear of infecting another pc.

My office computer has an admin control. The power option has been set for 'turn off in 20 mins' if I tried to change to 'never' but it says access is denied. It is win XP. All settings are denied. How can I stop shutting off every 20 mins. Thanks

I am the only user of my computer. I have Win XP Home w/SP3. I would like to be able to do a "whole sale" edit of the reqistry to grant full access to everything in the reqistry rather than having to change one entry at a time when I try to modify or delete a key. One good area where this is a nuisance is in the area of the registry that deals with "Legacy" keys. Thanks.

Thanks for the great article, now I have a couple other ways to get access to files on drives from other computers, while backing up or restoring folders and files.

What I would like to know is why sometimes I have access to the shared drives and sometimes I do not. I have experienced the access denied using an XP machine and trying to access both XP and Vista disk from other machines attached via a SATA/IDE to USB adapter. Sometimes the XP machine adds the Admin account to the disk without any action taken by me, sometimes I have to take ownership and add the account to the folder I need to get access. Makes no sense?

OMG i love you this has just saved about 4 yrs of my stuff, i could not be more thankful, i wish i could had found this sooner.

the main options I recommend is whenever a system requires a reformat and a backup of user files is to either
a> first put the files in question on a FAT32 volume / partition / disk
- file ownership & permissions don't follow files to anything that's formatted with FAT32
or
b> restore said file(s) from the backup to a FAT32 volume / partition / disk
same thing applies the backup program will usually restore the files and the file ownership / permissions lockout info will not follow the file and you will have full access to the file(s)
or
c> archive the files on CD/DVD which is
CDFS for Data CD's or UDF for Data DVDs
neither format supports the NTFS permissions, which is where the problem happens to be.