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Account Unknown s-1-5-21. Cannot delete because it has inherited permissions from parent.

Anonymous
2021-02-23T03:12:18+00:00

I just deleted one of my old unused accounts and when I go to properities of an app, it shows that there is a unknown user. Does that delete have anything to do with this?

Please help

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-23T03:51:56+00:00

    Hello Kenneth, how are you?

    Welcome to the Microsoft Community!

    My name is Paloma B., I'm an independent advisor, I'm here to help you in the best possible way.

    I understand that you deleted an old user from your computer.

    Yes, this exclusion has to do with the unknown account in the permission.

    However, this will not cause any problems, the system simply shows this account, because one day it existed, and since it was deleted, there is no information about it so it becomes an unknown account.

    I believe it is a subfolder or file within a folder, in this case you will need to change the permissions of the root, the main folder and remove this unknown account, so it will remove all subfolders and files within it, but only if you want to remove, as I said, it will not cause problems for that.

    I await news.

    If these procedures helped you in any way, please click on "I solved my problem" and also mark as an answer, so you can help others users.

    We will always be available for whatever you need!

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-23T04:18:18+00:00

    ..., it shows that there is a unknown user. Does that delete have anything to do with this?

    It might, or it might not. You'll have to find out on your own. I will show you how to do it.

    That long number that you are looking at is a Security Identifier, which is called a SID for short. A SID is a long hexadecimal number that identifies a Security Principle.

    A Security Principle is anything that has a legitimate role to play on your computer. It might be an individual user, or a group of users, or a device. For example, your user account has a SID that identifies you to the operating system.

    The letter S tells the operating system that the hexadecimal number is a SID.

    The number 1 is the version number of the SID, which is kind of an inside joke because there's only one version.

    The number 5 is called the Authority Identifier. It's the identity of the top-level authority within Windows that created the SID in the first place. In this case, i.e., 5, the top-level authority is SECURITY_NT_AUTHORITY, which is responsible for creating SIDs for individual user accounts.

    Now look all the way to the end of the SID, where there's a final dash (' - ') followed by 3 or 4 numbers. Those 3 or 4 numbers are called the Relative Identifier, and they will tell you who, or what, the SID refers to. Here's how to find out:

    You'll need to open Windows PowerShell. Go to Start menu > Windows PowerShell > Windows PowerShell. At the prompt, type (or copy and paste) the following:

    wmic useraccount list full

    then press Enter.

    If the Relative Identifier tells you it's the SID for the account you deleted, you could delete the SID, but I wouldn't. It's just sitting there doing nothing, not causing any trouble and occupying an extremely small amount of space. If you make a mistake while removing it, you can cause yourself all kinds of trouble. So just leave it be. It can't hurt your computer.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-23T04:44:48+00:00

    I managed to find out how to delete it, it now has no permissions but when I delete it, its not permanent and pops right back. The command you gave me dosen't work.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-23T17:06:10+00:00

    Thanks for the info.

    In this case, did you remove the permission from the root folder where the rest is inheriting the permission?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2021-02-23T05:00:40+00:00

    Uh. I fixed it myself. After I made it so it could be deleted, I figured out that I forgot to click apply 😅

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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