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How do you delete folders and files from the "Program Files" folder in Win 7?

I am trying to do this on someone else's computer and I don't know what rights their user account is.

It says that I don't have permission to delete the folder. I thought it was an administrator account because when I do "Run as Administrator" for other things it doesn't ask for a password, so it must be an administrator account.

Should I be able to delete a folder out of "Program Files" if the account has administrator rights? Or do I need to do something else, such as "Take Ownership" of the folder.

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It's possible this folder id locked by windows 7 'trustedinstaller' process. if that is the case you will need to take ownership of the folder and the files within.

In the past I have found that even doing the aforementioned still required a reboot before I was able to delete the folder.

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Folders in Program Files generally are owned by Administrator, since that's the accounts most installers are running under. Any administrator account should be sufficient to delete the folders. My system has the little shield next to the Delete option, and prompts me via UAC before removing the folder.

Check that your account is in fact an administrator account, and then check that administrators have delete privileges on the folders and files in question.

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