Permissions on Windows 8


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Hey y'all,

So I was on the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 and last night I went through the process to format and install the Release Preview. Only problem I have now is that my old files which were put into the usual Windows.old folder can't be deleted. I tried the takeown cmd command, but that didn't work. Seems a bit stupid to automate the transition to Win 8 and not offer a way to delete your old files.

Any suggestions? And I want to do this using command prompt or a built-in feature in Windows 8. Kinda defeats the purpose if I download Unlocker or something like that.

Cheers,

Nylonee

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Have you tried right clicking the folder and going into the security tab?

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Nevermind my mistake... I wasn't using command prompt in admin mode.

Here's the code for those who want to do something similar:

TAKEOWN /F C:\Windows.old /R

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Have you tried right clicking the folder and going into the security tab?

Yeah that didn't work. Kept coming up with permission denied stuff. Wish Windows 8 had integrated this better or at least allowed the security tab to do admin-based tasks.

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Strange, you should be able to edit the permissions in there to give yourself control over the folder. But you're right, I can't either, getting an error box I've never seen before.

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The easiest (and recommended) way to clean up old installations is to use the Disk Clean-up utility (if you click "clean-up system files" it will show you the option to clean up old installations, i.e. windows.old directories).

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I tried to open disk clean-up and noted the "Clean-up system files" option. Clicked on that and disk clean-up closed. Been 10 minutes and nothing's happened and I can't re-open disk clean-up.

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@Brandon, I think it's time to "modernize" the Disk Cleanup window. :p

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