You need to take ownership of the file. Then uyou can delete it:
How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID:308421
Last Review:May 7, 2007
Revision:2.6
This article was previously published under Q308421
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INTRODUCTION
MORE INFORMATION
How to take ownership of a folder
How to take ownership of a file
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
This article describes how to take ownership of a file or a folder where
you have been denied access.
If you must access a file or a folder that you do not have access to, you
must take ownership of that file or folder. When you do this, you replace
the security permissions to have access.
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MORE INFORMATION
How to take ownership of a folder
Note You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has
administrative credentials. If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an
account that has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab.
If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File
Sharing. By default, Windows XP Professional uses Simple File sharing when
it is not joined to a domain.
For additional information about how to do this, click the following
article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307874 (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874/) How to disable simplified
sharing and set permissions on a shared folder in Windows XP
To take ownership of a folder, follow these steps:
1.Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then
click Properties.
2.Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if
one appears).
3.Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4.In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you
are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you
want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace
owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
5.Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message:
You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder name.
Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting
you Full Control?
All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Note folder name is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership
of.
6.Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that
you want for the folder and its contents.
How to take ownership of a file
Note You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has
administrative credentials.
To take ownership of a file, follow these steps:
1.Right-click the file that you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
2.Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if
one appears).
3.Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4.In the Name list, click Administrator, or click the Administrators
group, and then click OK.
The administrator or the Administrators group now owns the file. To change
the permissions on the files and folders under this folder, go to step 5.
5.Click Add.
6.In the Enter the object names to select (examples) list, type the user
or group account that you want to give access to the file. For example,
type Administrator.
7.Click OK.
8.In the Group or user names list, click the account that you want, and
then select the check boxes of the permissions that you want to assign
that user.
9.When you are finished assigning permissions, click OK.
REFERENCES
For additional information about file and folder permissions, click the
following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base:
161275 (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/161275/) Interaction of file and
folder security on NTFS volumes
