"Access Is Denied" When trying to add wireless network

Yep, giving 'Everyone' full control of the Wlansvc folder fixed this for me.

Thanks everyone.

Taking Ownership of ProgramData/Microsoft/Wlansvc did the trick.

God I hate these permissions. They cause more problems they are are good for.

Your owner and administrator of your own computer, and you have to go through this ****

Bit of a necro but just to chip in, I was having this problem and found it through searching.

Basically I installed a new wireless card, and Win 7 Ultimate x64 was constantly asking for the key every restart. I went into "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Manage Wireless Networks" and there was nothing there, and every time I tried to add a profile I just got "Access Denied". (Such messages INFURIATE ME since I am GRAND F****** Admin on my machine, I built it and installed Windows on my own account.).

Anyways, after seeing the suggestions here of taking ownership and setting permissions on the wlansvc folder, I went off to do that, and found there wasn't one.... Only a wWanSvc folder.

So I created "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc", created a "Profiles" folder within that, and took ownership of the new "Wlansvc" folder, then allocated myself, System and Administrators Full Control.

After doing that, it let me add a profile, and all now works fine, it reconnects automatically and now gives me additional options for the network on right click. :)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ALL!!!! This is what finally worked for me!


I don't know how it happened or exactly when, but I've had to manually type my Wi-Fi password in for over a year!!! I've read this thread before, but it just didn't click.

Apparently, I needed to add my user for all permissions, even though I have Admin. permission.

I'm thinking it may have been after I changed my setup (WPA2-AES) to a router-behind-router, but my little netbook and smartphone had no problem finding the preferred Network.

This has made me NUTS for over a year!

Whatever, I'm happy now...LOVE the answers on THIS FORUM!

(now on to find a fix for why my trackpad functions are gone...)

Maco88 said:

Taking Ownership of ProgramData/Microsoft/Wlansvc did the trick.

God I hate these permissions. They cause more problems they are are good for.

Your owner and administrator of your own computer, and you have to go through this ****

ClericX said:

I managed to solve this problem, and guess what the problem was....

Just as I had expected, it was a permissions problem.

Apparently, In Windows 7 network profiles are saved in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles\Interfaces

The permissions for the wlansvc folder (as well as most of the rest of my programdata folder) were messed up and basically nobody had access to them. I added my user, administrators group, the administrator user, system, local service and applied to all subfolders etc and now I can save network profiles.

Hey ClericX
I know it's been a while since you posted this solution but still want to say thanx
Had this problem before, ended up reinstalling after dozens of "do this, reboot" fixes
This week another system had the same problem, found this post in minutes and fixed it even faster.
Thanks again
John

BobT36 said:

Bit of a necro but just to chip in, I was having this problem and found it through searching.

Basically I installed a new wireless card, and Win 7 Ultimate x64 was constantly asking for the key every restart. I went into "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Manage Wireless Networks" and there was nothing there, and every time I tried to add a profile I just got "Access Denied". (Such messages INFURIATE ME since I am GRAND F****** Admin on my machine, I built it and installed Windows on my own account.).

Anyways, after seeing the suggestions here of taking ownership and setting permissions on the wlansvc folder, I went off to do that, and found there wasn't one.... Only a wWanSvc folder.

So I created "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc", created a "Profiles" folder within that, and took ownership of the new "Wlansvc" folder, then allocated myself, System and Administrators Full Control.

After doing that, it let me add a profile, and all now works fine, it reconnects automatically and now gives me additional options for the network on right click. :)

Just like to add my thanks for your post, I had a very similar problem after a BTinfinity installation as I went from wired to wireless.
Creating the folders Wlansvs/Profiles and taking full control means I do have a Profile/Interfaces, all settings retained.
Regards and thanks
Terry

I have been searching for hours and try the security options as proposed in this thread with no luck.

My problem finally was that I had a hidden folder named c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wwansvc\ but it should be c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\.

After renaming the folder, everything worked just fine.

This forum was a Godsend. I've been fighting this problem since upgrading Windows 7 to SP1. "Permissions on the Wwansvc folder" was the solution. And yes, I am the administrator. Didn't matter. Still had to give full permission to system.

ClericX said:

I managed to solve this problem, and guess what the problem was....

Just as I had expected, it was a permissions problem.

Apparently, In Windows 7 network profiles are saved in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles\Interfaces

The permissions for the wlansvc folder (as well as most of the rest of my programdata folder) were messed up and basically nobody had access to them. I added my user, administrators group, the administrator user, system, local service and applied to all subfolders etc and now I can save network profiles.

"Just as I had expected, it was a permissions problem" I'm happy you stuck with your gut feeling on this one. I had a feeling "gut" that this was my problem, WELL DONE. You solved my 6 month long PITA, Thank you.

Maco88 said:

Taking Ownership of ProgramData/Microsoft/Wlansvc did the trick.

God I hate these permissions. They cause more problems they are are good for.

Your owner and administrator of your own computer, and you have to go through this ****

This worked for me. Kudos!!