How to take absolute ownership of a folder

I've spent a few hours searching for anything which could explain this topic. There's thousands of pages which explains how to take ownership under some file or folder but absolutely nothing which would say how to disable system to access that file. I understand, that technique could be misused from malware writers to destroy your system but I also couldn't find an explicite statement that it is impossible.

Brink said:

Anytime you disable system access to something it needs access to, it may not end well.

As for GWX, you could use OPTION THREE below to disable it.

upss.. you post this anwer while I wrote a new message.

Yes, I understand that it may produce many bad things. Just want to understand how system works in this case. As I told previously I don't have problems to disable GWX but I'm more interested in disabling access to some file or folder which are under OS control. I've chosen GWX just because it is not so important for proper work of Windows.


What's the highest privileged account used by Windows for system's jobs?

Cortex, if by "locking a folder" you mean denying all trustees access to it, then locking a folder is easy. Simply remove all the access rules in the Security tab of the folder's properties, and you'll have a folder no one can access.

Denying the system from making changes to the GWX folder might actually be an effective way of getting the GWX app off your tray and at bay.

Cortex7 said:

What's the highest privileged account used by Windows for system's jobs?

That would be an account called SYSTEM but I wouldn't say it has a higher privilege level than the builtin Administrator account.

Okay, I just tried it. I denied everyone permission to the GWX folder, and of course it did nothing. Each item in the GWX folder has it's own explicit permissions, and changing the permission settings of the GWX folder will not affect the permissions of the GWX app or neighbouring files (well played Microsoft, well played). After denying all to the GWX.exe itself, a reboot later, zero traces of the Get Windows 10 app was to be found.

Success.

Cortex, if there is anything specific you want to know or want achieved in Windows, just ask us and we'll do the digging and the testing for you. There's no point in you risking your PC when we have the answers and skill to figure things out efficiently.

it isn't so risky when we have possibility to work with VM.

After denying all to the GWX.exe itself, a reboot later, zero traces of the Get Windows 10 app was to be found.

you want to say if we lock GWX.exe after rebooting it won't be there anymore?

Cortex7 said:

it isn't so risky when we have possibility to work with VM.

By all means, if it's worth your while, use a VM at all times.

Cortex7 said:

After denying all to the GWX.exe itself, a reboot later, zero traces of the Get Windows 10 app was to be found.

you want to say if we lock GWX.exe after rebooting it won't be there anymore?

The GWX.exe application will still be there, it just won't be running when Windows starts as no users will have permission to run it.