File cannot be accessed by the system

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File cannot be accessed by the system

Anonymous

Long story short, I tried to add mods to a game that I downloaded from the Xbox app with the game pass. Because I can't find any option in Xbox to enable mod, I tried to access the game folder directly. So I took ownership of the WindowsApps folder, add full control access of the folder to Administrators/Everyone, and applied the new permissions to "This folder, subfolders, and files". Then in my game folder's security tab, it says I have full access to subfolders but when I go to the subfolder's security tab, it says I only have read access, and I can't move other files to the folder because a popup window says "You need administrator permission to access" or something like that( my account do have administrator permission ). And I can't modify the permission and inheritance because it's greyed out. I tried to enable/disable inheritance through the PowerShell command, it worked but I still can't modify the permission.

So I shut down the computer and when I start the computer again, 5 game folders show the "cannot be accessed by the system" error(despite 2 of them were installed on D drive which I didn't modify), I tried to uninstall them in Xbox but the folder still exists. (all 5 were from the game pass). I can't open the folder, and can't play the game(play button in Xbox opens game service page on Microsoft store). I tried "sfc /scannow" command in PowerShell, it found corrupted files and restored them, but after I restart the problem persists. I also restored the owner to TrustedInstaller.

(ps: Two games are not affected and their folder's name starts with "Microsoft.", while none of the affected do)

So now how do I delete those folders that "cannot be accessed by the system"?

Or alternatively, give the permission back to the system so I can download the game again and hope the app will recognize the folder. Currently, when I download it shows the following.

(ps: I'm also using Linux at the moment and it's just confusing how I'm unable to change permission while I'm the administrator on windows and how I can't access a folder while I have full control access to it)

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Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that you are facing issues with administrator access on your PC, and I certainly appreciate your efforts in trying to resolve the issue by following certain troubleshooting steps.

One of the things that I would suggest is to try booting the PC in Safe Mode and see if you have the administrator access. Refer the article Start your PC in safe mode in Windows 10

If you have the access then let’s try a couple of troubleshooting steps and see if that helps.

Method 1:

Try resetting the permissions using icacls command and see if that helps.

Press Windows + S key together to open Search.
Now type CMD and select Run as administrator.
Accept the UAC prompts.
Type in the following command and hit Enter:
ICACLS * /reset /t /c /q
Restart the PC

Method 2:

Enable built-in administrator and check if you are able to access the external drives. Kindly follow the steps mentioned below:

Now press Windows + S key together to open Search.
Now type CMD and select Run as administrator.
Accept the UAC prompts.
Type in the following commands one by one and hit Enter:
net user administrator /active:yes

If you are able to access the drives in built-in administrator, then create a new user account using built-in administrator and check if you are able to access the folders. Refer the article Create a local user or administrator account in Windows 10

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

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File cannot be accessed by the system

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