How to fix Windows 10 Home Edition corrupted Permissions for System and Administrators accounts

Question

I first tried to repair and then reinstalled Windows 10 Home Edition twice starting from reformatting the system partition "C:" but every time after the first update I noticed that different numbers of Services have a code appended to their name indicating that something is wrong.

The service McpManagerService always generates the error code 1500. This is because of not having access to the mui language files.

On further examinations I found out that on many essential system folders and files, the System and Administrators accounts don't have any permissions, for example on the folder C:\Windows\System32\ the security tab on properties of the folder the two accounts have no rights. Furthermore, it not possible to change them either.

The situation is very much like in this case https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-11-access-permissions-problems/ccda86ac-64b4-49ae-b62b-e1ccf844fa19

The relevant difference are

1. This is Windows 10 Home Edition
2. The same thing happens every time on installing Windows.

I have run chkdsk on C:\ and hardware diagnostic but to no avail.

I ran Windows Update troubleshooter too. Then I used a third part tool called SetAcl Studio. The permission shown in that tool are different to those shown in folder properties and the interface allows you to change them.

The bootup and this tool must be reading the permission from different sources, but I don't know which.

I tried to run icacls command as suggested in the above link, but it failed on most files and folders. This could be because the Administrators group don't have adequate rights in the first place.

The only other solution I can think of is

1. to enable the inbuilt administrator and login to Windows as the inbuilt administrator and then run cacls /reset.
2. The other option it to use a user id like "S-?-??-..". But I don't know which on to choose and how to use user id in this context.

I need a user that has total control. The take possession of all C:\ files and folders and then run cacls "C:" /reset. Will that reset the owner as well. This needs to be done carefully and in the right order. I certainly don't want to go through another instal.

Therefore:
1- Can someone explain to me why this is happening given that I have installed Windows from scratch several times and I get exactly the same error?
2- Will the inbuilt administrator be able to reset the permission?
3- Is this unique to Home Edition and would upgrading help?

Any other suggestion would also be welcome.

Answer 1

I couldn't even open those files because I didn't have permission, remember.

What files? Hosts and LMHosts? Administrators most certainly have access. The issue is UAC elevation, where even if you log in with an account that is a member of the Administrators group, you do not automatically have admin level access. The Windows explorer does not run elevated so if you double click on a .txt file, the launched notepad process is also not elevated. That is why there is a "run as administrator" option. It's a security mechanism that is designed to stop malware from infecting your pc when an admin does something like open a malicious email. You need to run notepad elevated in order to update those files.

Go Google "explain windows uac elevation". The intent is to force users to do an extra step to gain admin access to try to prevent unintentional infections.

You go and find and come back with yet another link. But if these articles were properly presented at the right time like an alert or something that could be picked on then I could understand it.

"Properly Presented" where? An alert? Look at the title of your question: "How to fix Windows 10 Home Edition corrupted Permissions for System and Administrators accounts", there was never anything wrong with your permissions. You asked about the McpManagerService service which I investigated and discovered was a problem, but it did not impact any functionality. It was just a description. Finally on August 11, 5 days and several comments after you asked the question, you mention the DNS client service.

If you would have explained from the start that you were attempting to configure a "whole home" VPN using a second wifi router that connected to your ISP's router and the DNS issue was the real problem that you were trying to solve, then maybe someone could have helped you sooner.

But as I said, if the client DNS is not doing anything then it shouldn't have been left on automatic by default.

It's function is to cache DNS entries so that your computer does not have to perform a network call to its DNS servers every time some process needs to know the IP of a name.

What is the point of running ipconfig /flushdns if the flushed data cannot be found anywhere?

Go Google "windows ipconfig displaydns time to live". Once a name has been resolved to an IP address there is a time assigned for which that address is valid. If the actual IP of a server changes before the time to live expires, then your PC is going to refer to the old IP address. You then have to /flushdns, so that your computer does a network call to the configured DNS servers to get the new IP address.

https://superuser.com/questions/230308/explain-output-of-ipconfig-displaydns

I tried everything to find out where does the flushed data go.

It goes into the bit bucket. It doesn't go anywhere. The cache is cleared.

There is a Powershell command that is to list the content but there was nothing in there.

That's because you put the IP address of your laptop in the DNS server field.

Your laptop is not running a DNS Server service. I explained that with this reply.

In my experience all this points to LMHost is the file that gets populated. Hosts is the one with static mapping.

Hosts and LMHosts need to be manually updated by an administrator.

Nslookup never returned anything other than the IP.

Again, that's because you put the IP address of your laptop in the DNS server field. Your laptop is not running a DNS Server service. On Win10 you would need to install a 3rd party DNS Server service.

https://superuser.com/questions/1670549/can-i-set-up-my-own-dns-server-on-a-windows-10-machine

I asked you to do a nslookup and point it to your wifi router to see if it accepted DNS queries. Did you do that? What response did you get?

As I said, the last time I actually did any computing on Windows was with XP. I have used Windows 10 for a long time but only for sending email, writing documents, downloading, and casting and that sort of thing.

Windows functionality has changed since the XP days.

I also explained why I started on this route and even the DELL engineer didn't know why there were user specific server host processes. I had absolutely no idea that all this stuff had changed and only found out when I needed to do something about devices that kept losing contact when I changed to Ethernet.

I cannot answer for the Dell techs. I can only guess that they were confused by your questions.

I have worked with Linux and then found out that on top of all this pain I had to dish out $145 just to activate the professional version. That was the final straw and even the challenge of it lost its appeal.

From what you have explained, I do not see any reason that you would need to upgrade to Windows Pro.

So, all of this is in the past and I stand by my reasoning. Windows is for corporates within a server environment with a dedicated administrator who keeps sitting exams.

I have no problem running a Win10 Home desktop (ethernet), 2 Win11 Home laptops (wifi), and Android phones (wifi). Everything works fine for what I need to do in a home environment. Out of 1.4 billion Windows devices, I expect that there are millions of Windows Home pc's who apparently share my experience with the Home version.

If you understand Linux technologies better than you do Windows, then use Linux pc's.