Destination Folder Access Denied – You need permission to perform this action in Vista

May 19th, 2008 b0ddu Posted in How to, Vista | 44 Comments »

Windows Vista users who are trying to delete old files existing from windows xp mostly encounter this weird error message ‘Destination Folder Access Denied – You need permission to perform this action’. This happens even when you login as Administrator too. Don’t panic, if there is any super user.

'Destination Folder Access Denied - You need permission to perform this action WHY: In Windows Vista, user should have complete ownership of the file. For this reason you’ll have to take ownership of the files that are lacking ownership and prompt this error message.

SOLUTION:

Taking complete ownership can be done with help of two simple commands, yet so powerful. These are takeown (which takes ownership of a file or directory) and icacls (which sets new ACLs on that directory).

Instead of entering these commands manually for all folders, we can automate it. Download below Take_Ownership.reg and run it  to load into registry. If your UAC is still active, you’ll have hit continue every time.

Now, when you hold shift and right-click on a file or folder ( the one with issue ) you will have the option of changing the ownership by Take Ownershipclicking ‘Take Ownership’.

You can confirm, if this worked by looking at file Properties > Details and in owner section be changed to Computername\Username.


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44 Responses to “Destination Folder Access Denied – You need permission to perform this action in Vista”

  1. anonymus111 Says:
    August 13th, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    thanks worked perfectly on win 7 64-bit !! the only working solution i found 🙂

  2. Phil McCool Says:
    September 10th, 2010 at 11:13 am

    Thank you.

    Yes this works – right click link – ‘save as’ to desktop – make sure you set save to all files rather than txt. If file saves with .txt at end – just delete the .txt part – the .reg is what you want. Open on desktop and it will self install.

    Allow if UAC asks

    In Windows explorer make sure you shift-right click in main window – not just in left hand panel – and you will see the Take Ownership option.

    Works a treat – thanks again.

  3. Jonathan Says:
    October 13th, 2010 at 1:12 am

    Thank you so much for posting this, I have been searching for this answer for the better part of an hour!

  4. Jon Says:
    March 19th, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    Thanks worked a treat. (to download it simply right click on the blue coloured “Download Take_Ownership.reg” or just click on it and right it to the reg.

    Note run an antivirus scan on ur PC afterwards as you should allways when installing things on it.

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