Hello I am trying to delete the folder C:\cygwin which was used by the previous user of the computer. I installed a new version of Windows after him, but this folder stayed in the way. I need permission to delete file. I already changed the ownership to myself, but now it asks for permission to delete it again. I am the user, it asks permission from my account, and I don't know how to grant it. Can you please help me? I tried to use del filename.xxx with the command prompt as administrator, but I got "access denied" too. Hope you can help me.

I still have no solution for this problem. I have made a big research before posting the first time, so I know that most of the time, this question is left unanswered, but I still hope someone can help me. Thank you

Hi Sebastien, When you take the ownership of this folder, did you check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects"? You may didn't take the ownership of the subcontainers. Regards, MiyaThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thank you Yao, Yes, I did. Actually, I even try to take ownership of some files/folders one by one to be sure, but I still can't erase them.

1. Did you stop the cywin services firstly? Please click Start, input cmd in the search box, run cmd as administrator. Then input the command: cygrunsrv -E sshd cygrunsrv -R sshd 2. After this, try to delete the c:\cygwin folder again to check if it works. 3. Then click start, input regedit in the search box, press Enter to open the Registry Editor. Delete the CYGWIN registry here. HKEY_CURRENT_USER_Software_Cygnus Solutions HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_Software_Cygnus Solutions 4. Click Start, input compmgmt.msc in the search box, press Enter to open the Computer Management window. Expand System Tools - Local Users and Groups - Users If the sshd user is existed, please delete it. Hope the above steps could help you delete the whole cygwin. Regards, Miya This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Try this: 1. Press windowsbutton + r and you will get a run screen. Type cmd and press enter 2. Type in the black screen the following: takeown /f "c:\yourfolder" /r 3. Press enter and see if it says successful Try to dele the folder and if it says it can't delete a specific file then "skip" it and eventually you should have only the files that give a problem to you. Check if any files in the folder has permissions that would deny you write access. If it's in use then I would highly suggest the program Unlocker at http://www.filehippo.com/download_unlocker/ with it you can right click on the file/folder which you want to delete > click unlocker > choose your option like rename/move/delete. This is freeware.

Ok, so I try both methods this morning. For Miya's method, I could find nothing in the registers and other places you asked me to check, so Cygwin was not installed on this version of Windows. The Unlocker program worked, when I could finally find the right "download" button. All the Ads are quite incovenient, but at least it worked (actually "is working", since it takes hours to erase these 200K files...). Thank you both for your help. Seb

Hi Seb, Glad to hear you get it worked:) Regards, MiyaThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hey Sebastien, Because it's freeware there is a lot of ads on there website. How else are they going to finance it? I'm glad to hear that it works for you. --- Jonathan