As we can see I deleted the entry of 'Authenticated Users' and 'Users' from the security tab in C: local properties. I can still use every installed program on the PC, but unable to access C:, the message is: Denied Acess, any way to revert it?
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5You have destroyed too many permissions on essential Windows folders. You need to reinstall Windows from scratch, and avoid doing this again.– harrymcCommented Jan 4, 2021 at 19:36
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1harrymc has the right of it - there's no automated permission repair on Windows. It is technically possible to recreate the permissions yourself, but it would be a very poor use of your time. Just reinstall.– KaruCommented Jan 5, 2021 at 2:24
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@Karu I have so many dependencies in this system. I prefer to recontrol C:– JamesBCommented Jan 5, 2021 at 11:07
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What you want to do and what you can do are not the same thing. This is a good lesson: don't mess with permissions on C drive unless you really know what you're doing.– music2myearCommented Jan 7, 2021 at 2:10
1 Answer
You cannot repair the damage you've done to permissions on the C drive without a reinstall of Windows. There are too many little details that cannot be known. There are the OS default permissions which are already complex and irreproducable, and then there are the permissions set by individual applications, and finally there are likely other changes you made to permissions besides simply removing the two groups you state you removed.
The correct course of action at this point is to perform a reinstall of Windows.
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1... and then set up proper automated backups that would be able to completely rollback the system after such mistake. Veeam Agent is my usual recommendation, I've been using it with great success. It does complete system snapshots in background and can restore a completely destroyed OS. Commented Jan 11, 2021 at 8:00