Windows 7: Windows cannot access when trying to taking ownership

hi, i'm trying to take ownership like you've described here but when i click "take ownership" i get an error message saying "windows cannot access the specific device, path or file. you may not have the appropriate permission to access the item". i get this same error message when i double click the computer icon or any icon on my desktop. please help. i do like windows 7 but this issue is driving me crazy.

Make sure you are an administrator - a standard user can not do this.

Try the following - right-click on the file -> properties -> security -> advanced -> owner -> edit. Normally you'll get a window where you can change the owner. Note, that changing the owner does not change permissions, you'll have to do that manually afterwards.

Note, that system files and links (such as those ensuring backward compatibility) and are best left alone. So, make sure that the file you are trying to take ownership of is just a data file, not important for normal operation of the OS or applications. If you mess with system files you can cripple your system.

i've tried that but it says "cant open access control editor, access denied". i cant double click to open any files from my desktop, or from the start menu. in order to open "computer", i have to right click then click open. even in control panel i cant change any settings from the user profile icon.

Are you in an administrator account?

That doesn't sound familiar ... Maybe you could Login into Build-in Administrator see whether you have the same problem there.

Hope this helps,
Captain

it says that i'm an administrator and that i'm the owner. it wont let me open cmd as administrator, it gives the same error message.

I will say that if Jack's suggestion doens't work,, then I wouldn't mess around anymore.
Backup what data you can to an exteranl Hard Drive and Start from scratch.

I you are having the problem that I quoted. You have bigger problems than a simple take ownership will fix.

Please be careful when using TakeOwn, it's a very powerful tool that can result in these types of problems that are not easy to back out of. TakeOwn should not be used lightly, or for the hell of it. It should be used by those who know what they are doing, or those who aren't afraid of starting over from scratch. It should only be used when absolutely needed, and there are not many,,, extremely few times where it is actually needed.

Personally,, I suggest biting the bullet and Nuke and Reload.

The reason is,, if you can't open Computer from the desktop, then there is no telling what other problems have arisen that you wil spend more time trying to find and fix, and eventually have an unstable system you are going to ahve to reload anyway.

i'm willing to start from scratch and have tried to restore from the recovery partition but i get the same error message. i've also tried to restore factory settings from the windows 7 disk but that doesn't work either.

As a Final set you could try to Login under Safe mode then see whether you could Enable the build-in account.

Hope this helps,
Captain

in safe mode i can access all the areas and do what i cant do in my normal mode. how do i restore the original settings from safe mode?