Apparently I don't own anything...

[darthnihilus]

Last night I did a foolish thing, simply trying to rename my user file folder to something more manageable. I didn't really think much about it but now I have apparently screwed several things up by trying to force the computer to let me own those files in order to rename them. I downloaded a registry file that I had used on my Vista that allowed me to right-click and have it go through the process of taking ownership. I also removed it with the "uninstall" registry file that came with it and... Now, my desktop background won't come up (pictures are selected and set to sideshow, but the background remains black) and I have to run almost everything as an administrator or it says I don't have permission or something to that effect. It seems to me that there is some sort of "gap" between my user profile and the ownership user commands even when I give ownership to myself, that's just my theory. Do you guys have any ideas? I don't even know where to start.

-By the way I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

 

[CarlTR6]

Do you have a restore point from before you made the changes? If so, restore your system.

 

[SledgeDG]

Hi darthnihilus and welcome to SF!
The only thing I would do now is a system restore to a point before all that registry dabbling and taking ownership
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

-DG

Carl was faster

 

[darthnihilus]

I did make a restore point right before all of this. No dice, I've tried a couple of different points and nothing has changed. It makes me think it's not a registry thing though... Also I forgot to mention, Windows Essentials no longer starts even though it's selected as a start-up program in msconfig and every other way I can think of. I'm using Avast now.

 

[Hopalong X]

You can try this first. Run it three times. It will attempt to repair and restore default registry.
A window will pop up saying it can't fix or repair- you then run it again. It will not repair everything in one attempt.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

If that doesn't work then a Repair install is next on the list. You will need the Windows 7 install CD for this.
You will not lose any of your files and folders. It just repairs and returns to default registry for Windows directly from the disk.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Mike

Follow Carl's suggestion below first. Good idea. Better to be safe.
Blue button on left is the free version.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

 

[CarlTR6]

Download, install and update Malwarebytes; then run a scan to make sure you don't have a nasty.