Messed up AppData Ownership; Can't Install Anything

MSchild · 17 Feb 2013

All right guys, Im gonna break down the situation for you. It goes like this:

I installed the Take Ownership registry tweak. I don't ever use it because I don't ever need to, it just seemed like it would come in handy when I downloaded it. But anyways, now it appears on the context menu. More on this in a moment.

I also set up EFS on my system so that I could encrypt some files, because my motherboard doesn't have a TPM chip, so I can't do the whole hard drive. But anyways, now there is an entry on the context menu that says Encrypt. Handy, right?

So, funny story/true story, I impulsively decided it would be a good idea to encrypt everything in my user folder (C:\Users\User_Folder"). I right clicked the folder and hit Encrypt (in my mind) and simultaneously right clicked the folder and hit Take Ownership (in real life). I'm not sure this is the worst "user error" I've been guilty of, but it's up there.

So once I realized that "I don't remember a cmd window with a flurry of text during the encryption process", I combined that with the observation that "this folders' text is not turning green", and then I started looking in the cmd window to catch what it was saying (casually - no hurry, right?). Once I saw what it was doing I stopped it of course, but I really didnt think it would be an issue, after all, Im pretty sure everything in the libraries and downloads folder etc is already owned by the user account whose folder they are in.

But I forgot about the hidden AppData folder...
Which contains the Temp folder...

And now when I go to install software, they cant access the extracted .msi's in the temp folder and exit with an error message every time, saying that it cant access the file in Temp\Whatever. I have been unable to find the default ownership permissions of the folder, nor do I know how to restore them. I really don't have anything monumental to install but I figure sooner or later it will really start to get to me. Plus, my knowledge of Windows is not that impressive, and I wonder if this tid-bit of awesome-sauce might cause other problems or instabilities etc. So once again, I appeal to the Gurus at SevenForums!

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. Any other specs you need, just let me know. TIA.

Brink · 17 Feb 2013

Hello Natalie,

I don't believe that taking ownership may be the issue. Most likely encrypting it is the issue. See if decrypting your "C:\Users\User_Folder" folder and it's contents may help afterwards.

Encrypt or Decrypt a Folder or File

Hope this helps, :)
Shawn

MSchild · 17 Feb 2013

Well I had not actually gone ahead and encrypted the whole user folder. Of course, I meant to, and if my clicking skills were any better I would have lol, but the only folders I have encrypted on the whole system are the Downloads directory and a subfolder of the Documents directory. Nonetheless, I have unencrypted them for the sake of troubleshooting, and the problem persists.

Brink · 18 Feb 2013

In that case, if you have a restore point available that is dated before this happened, then you could try doing a system restore with that restore point to see if it may be able to undo and fix this.

MSchild · 18 Feb 2013

Well I habitually delete the bulk of my restore points. I know it doesn't take up much space, I'm just compulsive like that. IDK how many times Ive hit shift+del and whished I didnt.

Anyways, I have about 20 restore points but theyre all from trying to install software the last few days. I wonder if I could create a new user and just copy the contents of the libraries, etc?

Oh, and if its any help, two installers specifically give me "Error 2203". I was trying to find this error number earlier, but couldnt remember which installer was giving it. Then I thought that perhaps it was specific to the individual installer, but this morning I found that two of them give the same code, so perhaps something can be inferred from that..

Brink · 18 Feb 2013

In that case, as a test, create yourself a new administrator account, and see if you have the same issues while logged on to it.

If not, then you could use the new account instead. You'll just need to copy over any files and shortcuts from the old account.

MSchild · 18 Feb 2013

Things are installing fine from the new account. I think I'll keep this account though, Id like to tinker around and see if I can't get this sorted out; it'll be something of an exercise. I'll just use the new account to install things in the meantime.

Brink · 18 Feb 2013

I'm glad to hear that the new account it working for you.

gregrocker · 18 Feb 2013

May I suggest you not delete Restore Points or tamper with any of the other System utilities and tools? Win7 is perfectly balanced but because it's feather light crude changes can affect performance in very serious ways.

System Restore is the arm you need here to do your clicking as you want. Don't cut it off.

MSchild · 18 Feb 2013

I agree, it is not an intelligent move, at least in terms of fault-tolerence. But the tradeoff made here is in the interest of privacy. I generally aim to keep things sanitized, and that's where that sort of behavior stems from.

But no, I wouldn't advise anyone else to delete ANY restore points. I just do it on my own machine because if I mess it up, worst-cast-scenario is that I've learned an invaluable lesson ;p lol