Windows

Folder Access Denied, you require permission from SYSTEM: Unable to delete old windows folder

This very error is similar to the following error dealt with yesterday “You require permission from trusted installer: How to delete or rename files protected by Trusted Installer” as it protects the Os from illegitimate actions such as unauthorized access and changes to these files. For a similar issue, see how to resolve “Error 740: Elevated permissions are required to run DISM“. Also, see Folder Access Denied, you require permission from SYSTEM: Unable to delete old windows folder. You may have encountered this error as well, this is absolutely why you are here! When you try to delete or rename some folders in Windows 10, you will get the following error “Folder Access Denied: you require permission from SYSTEM to make changes to this folder. Kindly refer to this troubleshooting guide for how these errors were resolved. Error Code: 0x80070035: MDT unable to access the Log share, the Network Path was not found, and how to create a hidden share (Administrative share) folder on Windows devices.

Note: Deleting system folders or files can have a dare effect on your system, using this method to delete old windows file is not recommended. I would suggest using the Windows 10 built-in cleanup tools. But the steps below are ways to take ownership of the folder and grant the needed permission to have it deleted.

If you are sure you need to delete a folder with access denied and a “you require permission from SYSTEM to make changes to this folder” message, Please follow the steps described below.

Right-click on the folder,
– Select “Properties” from the context menu
– Select the “Security” tab to access the NTFS permissions and
– Click on “Advanced” button

On the “Advanced Security Settings” page,
– You need to click the change link as shown below in order to change the ownership of the folder.

Next, you will have to grant these rights to the Administrator or a specific user account. In my case “Christian”.

Click on Check Names for the object to be identified. Windows will automatically check and complete the full object name as shown below

Also in this window, you will have to “replace ownership on subcontainers and object” option in the Advanced Security Settings page to take control of the subfolders inside of the folder
– Simply click on the checkbox as shown below.

Click on Yes on the Windows Security confirmation page as shown below

The changes will be appropriately applied to the user Christian as shown below

Click on Okay as the below is just a suggestion.

Lastly, it is worth pointing out that, taking ownership of a folder,
– You will have to check the “Replace all child object permissions entries with inheritable permissions for this object” option in the Advanced Security Settings page to replace the subfolders permissions with the settings from the parent folder.

The changes will be appropriately applied to the user Christian as shown below

When this step is complete, click on Ok. yo should be able to delete the folder henceforth.

As you can see, the windows.old folder is no longer present as it has been deleted.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.

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JR Williamson
JR Williamson
2 years ago

Hi Christian,

I followed your instructions to the “T” and thankfully I have been able to remove a “Windows.old” folder from 2019. Great post! I will be following you in the future.

tyler
tyler
1 year ago

Thank you very much, you are the only person who helped me because all of the other websites gave me instructions that did not work

Nathan Ricker
1 year ago

Thank you very much to the writer for writing this informative article. This article can be very helpful for those who want to delete their old windows folders.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 months ago

Hey, thank you so much for the great advice! Other sites gave useless info, this did the trick for me.

Valerie A
Valerie A
6 months ago

Thank you so much

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