Trusted Installer

[Dorsetmike]

One thing I hate about Windoze is the way they try and force My this that and the other on us, I prefer to save things where I want them, not buried on the C:\ drive with everything else. I always partition my drives and save things in folders with names and or dates that mean something to me. So it has always been my habit to delete a lot of the Microsloth garbage.

Not so easy however on more recent versions Vista, 7 and 8, try and delete or change something which Windoze thinks you must have and you get a message that "Trusted Installer" won't let you, they have introduced "Ownership" of files and folders.

There is a way out of this, you need to change the "Ownership", that at first appears to be such an involved process that few people could cope for one file or folder let alone a load of them. However some kind person has found an easy way round it, a registry tweak which adds a "Take Ownership" option to the the drop down menu that appears if you right click on a file or folder. It works in Vista Win7 and Win 8, and changes the ownership to either Administrator or you as "User" depending on who you are logged in as. There is also a tweak to reverse the operation on the registry. So you could do it to the folders you want fixed, then prevent anybody else changing further.


http://www.askvg.com/add-take-owners...windows-vista/

Click on the download link partway down the page and then run when download is complete; when you use it on a file or folder it runs a command line sequence which will change the ownership of the file, or if you do it to a folder then it takes a bit longer as it deals with all files in the folder.

[DCCDave]

Mike,

Anything protected in such a way is regarded by Microsoft as critical to Windows operation. You really shouldn't fiddle with them as you may impact the stability of Windows.

'Owenership' of files and folders has been in Windows since the introduction of NTFS, Windows 2000 I believe. I sure isn't new.

Are you having problems accessing your own files? If so I can give you a hand to set Windows up so that you can have your own documents/music etc. on any drive you want without fiddling with permissions.

Cheers
Dave

[MikeDunn]

Not so easy however on more recent versions Vista, 7 and 8, try and delete or change something which Windoze thinks you must have and you get a message that "Trusted Installer" won't let you, they have introduced "Ownership" of files and folders.

Not seen this in anything earlier than Win7 (I don't use Win8), or in that either; at least, not anything that shouldn't be protected.  While it may not be as straight-forwards as it used to be, setting things up the way you want is still there & easily done.  TrustedInstaller is there to protect the essential Windows files; if there is something there you don't want, either uninstall it from the system correctly or live with it ...

If you have installed Windows properly, and have intelligently set it up so that your boot drive only has Windows on it, then you shouldn't need to mess about deleting things.  Uninstalls should be pretty straight-forwards, unless you've gone in with size 12s & messed things up !  Delete out of areas such as Program Files or System32 & you're asking for trouble ...

"Take Ownership" is likely aimed at sysadmins, where if a user in a company has "restricted" areas in a shared folder they can then seize control back (permissions like that should be set properly by the experts, not amateurs ... often, this is an indication of hiding things they shouldn't be doing ... and often, it's a bungling attempt to limit access to files to their team.  Either way - it messes the system up).  I'd not suggest using it on a personal PC !

Setting things up so that your personal files are on say the D: drive is reasonably straight-forward; best done at install time, but it can be retro-fitted.  I only allow Windows & absolutely essential 3rd-party components (eg Flash) to live on C: ...  Applications live on D: as does my data, games on E: ...  My personal account is limited-access; the Admin account is used only when really required.  Anyone using an admin account on a daily basis is frankly playing Russian roulette, regardless of how they have set up firewalls, anti-spam, anti-virus etc.  I always find it amusing how often people who ignore that complain loudly that "the system just ate my files !" when it was their own fault for using an admin account as a normal one ...

Anyway - I notice that the page you linked to seems to have moved or been withdrawn !  Probably best; messing about with things like this if you don't know what you're doing likely will end up in tears.

Mike

[Dorsetmike]

I worked in electronics from 1951 to retirement in '99, I was teaching microprocessors down to machine code level in the late 1970s and have owned PCs since 1984 so I think I know what I'm doing thank you.

I don't see how folders which are empty and never used by me can be called essential (for me); for me they just clutter the place up and take space which can be used for other things.

[DCCDave]

I worked in electronics from 1951 to retirement in '99, I was teaching microprocessors down to machine code level in the late 1970s and have owned PCs since 1984 so I think I know what I'm doing thank you.

A little rude don't you think, since you did ask for help.

I'll spare you any more advise.

Dave

[Rob H]

I don't think he was being rude at all and try reading his post again, where did he ask for help ?

[MikeDunn]

I don't see how folders which are empty and never used by me can be called essential (for me); for me they just clutter the place up and take space which can be used for other things.

If they're empty they take up minimal space (bytes, at worst Kb - and modern drives are in Gb if not Tb so we are talking a tiny fraction of a percent), and if they're Windows folders how can they be cluttering up your user area ?

As with DCCDave, I'll not bother offering you any more advice, as you evidently know it all (you're not the only one who has decades of experience - and unlike yours, mine is with exactly this technology, not in related fields, and is current).

What I will say to the wider audience is - I cannot recommend using the GUI interface DorsetMike recommends to the Windows commands it hides unless you know what you're doing - and frankly, if you know that why are you using a GUI that could be doing other things in addition to what it purports ?  Security is key.

Mike

[Caz]

Sorry guys and girls as this is one of those topics that people have strong opinions on and will obviously go nowhere I'"ve locked the topic but I would advise members to heed some of the advice given in this thread for their own security.