Accidentally Denied Administrators from Listing Folder Contents

[Paul Rubin]

Hello all. I accidentally clicked the 'Deny' box for Administrators to
List Folder Contents on a specific directory. Is there any way to
restore this ability?

Sincerely,
Paul Rubin
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Open a Command Prompt Window and enter CACLS /? You can also search for
CACLS in Help and Support

 

[Paul Rubin]

Hi Doug and thanks for your reply.
I tried the CACLS command, however when I try to set full control for
the directory, I get an "Access Denied" error message. Any clues?

Sincerely,
Paul Rubin
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

You may have to play around with the structure of the command.

Examples:

CACLS D:\My Folder /T /G <username>erm F
CACLS D:\My Folder\ /T /G <username>erm F
CACLS D:\My Folder\*.* /T /G <username>erm F

You may even have to go one level higher. Also, don't forget about the /E
switch. Otherwise, you may have to go back in, once you have permissions
and re-assign the other users/groups rights.

 

[Paul Rubin]

Thanks Doug,

I tried the command:

CACLS c:\Folder /T /G Paul:F

And it asks, "Are your Sure?"
I answer "Y", and it replies, "Access is Denied".

I can't seem to get around the restriction.
Any other clues?

Sincerely,
Paul Rubin
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Did you use C:\Folder, or did you use the actual name of the folder? Like I
said, you may have to experiment a bit.

 

[Paul Rubin]

I used the actual name of the folder.
And yes I did experiment around a bit, with no luck.
It appears that I have the syntax correct with:

CACLS c:\badfoldername /T /G Paul:F

However it blocks my access to be able to reset permissions.
Any ideas?

Sincerely,
Paul Rubin
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Its a tough one, Paul. I managed to get my hard disk back, locked myself
out of C: the other day, playing around with a utility. CACLS saved my
butt. Backup anything you can't afford to lose, and move up on folder
level. Use the /T switch, and try it again. As I said, I locked out an
entire hard drive for access, and it took some playing around. Try the
command in all 3 formats, on the folder you don't have access to:

No trailing back slash, with one and with \*.* Try various combinations of
them, in different orders. Mine was on the root of C:, so there weren't too
many different options.

Short of that, see www.sysinternals.com. They have a DOS utility that will
read NTFS and a pay for version that will write to NTFS. I do not know if
it gets around the permissions restrictions or not.

 

[Paul Rubin]

Here's how I got around the issue:
I went to the 'Security' tab, clicked on the 'Advanced' button, and
then clicked on the 'Owner' tab. I then took ownership of the folder
by selecting myself from the list and checking the 'Replace Ownership
on subcontainers and objects' box. This granted me full control of the
folder!

Sincerely,
Paul Rubin
(e-mail address removed)