Cannot delete out of date driver

[Guest]

Hello
I have looked through a month's worth of post and could not find anything
that covered this, so I hope someone can help.

I am trying to get my Belkin wireless adapter to work with my Netgear
wireless router. I have been advised that I need to replace the Belkin
adapters that came with the PC (and Vista Home Premium) with a new driver
which I have downloaded onto a memory stick.

However, when I try to point Vista to the new driver, it tells me it already
has the latest driver. When I try to delete the current driver, I cannot
negotiate the spider's nest of permissions required to delete the files from
the File Repository in windows/system32/drivers - I keep getting access
denied messages.

I am the only user, I understand the point of UAC, I just cannot seem to get
it to allow me to delete the files.

Help please - got a stand-alone PC at the moment!!!

 

[Robert Moir]

Hello
I have looked through a month's worth of post and could not find anything
that covered this, so I hope someone can help.

I am trying to get my Belkin wireless adapter to work with my Netgear
wireless router. I have been advised that I need to replace the Belkin
adapters that came with the PC (and Vista Home Premium) with a new driver
which I have downloaded onto a memory stick.

However, when I try to point Vista to the new driver, it tells me it
already
has the latest driver. When I try to delete the current driver, I cannot
negotiate the spider's nest of permissions required to delete the files
from
the File Repository in windows/system32/drivers - I keep getting access
denied messages.

I am the only user, I understand the point of UAC, I just cannot seem to
get
it to allow me to delete the files.

Access denied errors are not UAC issues.

Lets look at this for a moment. You're trying to install drivers that are
supposed to be newer, but failing because Windows doesn't see them as newer.

Straight away you've gone nuclear and tried to delete everything you think
might be related, but go back to the drivers you're trying to install: If
they really were newer, *and* if Belkin have done everything right with
their drivers, you would not be getting the error you are getting. Maybe
there's a problem with either your old or your new Belkin drivers that you
should probably be pursuing as a support issue with Belkin? Would be a real
shame if you finally deleted the "old" drivers only to find that the vista
installer was telling you the truth, or if the whole thing is messed up
because of something other than the drivers.

 

[Guest]

Well, well Mr Moir, aren't you the smug one?

I came here like Laertes looking for an answer and see you have answered
nothing.

It irritates me no end that Windows has decided that I am not allowed to
delete files because my administrator privileges are not high enough.

Riddle me this, oh smug one, why does Windows even BOTHER to give me an
error message saying I don't have high enough permissions when i am the only
ONE on the Computer and am listed as an ADMINISTRATOR?

AND THERE IS NOTHING ON THE MS WEBSITE TO TELL YOU HOW TO GET HIGHER THAN
ADMIN PRIVILEGES ON YOUR COMPUTER.

UAC is actually worse than the MAC commercials make it out to be.

I am absolutely fuming at how ridiculous UAC is. All pain and no gain.

 

[Robert Moir]

Well, well Mr Moir, aren't you the smug one?
I came here like Laertes looking for an answer and see you have
answered nothing.
It irritates me no end that Windows has decided that I am not allowed
to delete files because my administrator privileges are not high enough.
Riddle me this, oh smug one, why does Windows even BOTHER to give me an
error message saying I don't have high enough permissions when i am the
only ONE on the Computer and am listed as an ADMINISTRATOR?

AND THERE IS NOTHING ON THE MS WEBSITE TO TELL YOU HOW TO GET HIGHER
THAN ADMIN PRIVILEGES ON YOUR COMPUTER.

UAC is actually worse than the MAC commercials make it out to be.
I am absolutely fuming at how ridiculous UAC is. All pain and no gain.

Riddle you nothing. I'm not your slave and I'm not responsible for
providing you with tech support. I tried to actually point you towards
a way of solving your problem but because it wasn't what you wanted to
hear you've decided to sulk.

As far as I'm concerned you and your problem are someone else's problem now.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Laertes wrote:

When I try to delete the current driver, I cannot
negotiate the spider's nest of permissions required to delete the files from
the File Repository in windows/system32/drivers - I keep getting access
denied messages.

</snip>

Hello,

You are running into Windows File Protection here.

It goes above and beyond UAC to prevent system files from being modified.

In order to modify these files, you have to make it clear to Windows
that you really want to modify them. To do that:

- Click start
- Type: command prompt
- Right-click command prompt when it appears
- Click Run As Administrator
- Type the following commands, pressing enter after each line, where
FILENAME.sys is the name of the driver you need access to

cd %systemroot%\system32\drivers
takeown /F FILENAME.sys /A
icacls FILENAME.sys /grant AdministratorsM)

- You should now be able to modify the file.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

I meant to add,

Robert is right that if the driver won't install any other way it isn't
such a good idea to force it.

But, it's your machine, after all...