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I wanted to encrypt a specific folder in my company domain and now I cannot access it.

This is Windows 7, I am administrator on of my PC.

On the folder I did right click->properties->security

for the System and Administrators I did Deny all. and for me (DOMAIN\ME) I gave full control.

Now I cannot access the folder. I tried to set the permissions back, but with no success

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  • Is this on a network share? are you really talking about encryption or just plain file permissions?
    – MoonSire
    Nov 13, 2013 at 8:30

2 Answers 2

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In an ACL (Access control list) you can give allow ACEs (Access control entry) and deny ACEs. Deny ACEs have precedence over allow ACEs. So if you added deny Access for Administrators and you are a member of the Administrators Group, then that deny entry overrides the allow entry for your user. When you changed the file access rights in Explorer, Explorer gave you a warning stating exactly that. You dismissed that warning, now you got a problem.

If there is an account that is not in the Administrators group and is allowed to change file access on that file, then that user can remove the deny ACE. If there is no user, then you might have success setting back the computer to a restore point or connecting the hard drive to another computer and change the access rights there. Who is the owner of the file? File owners normally have some implicit additional rights, maybe the file owner can change the ACL?

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    Or, using a second Administrator account (created just for this purpose, if necessary), remove your account from the Administrators group long enough to fix the ACL; then restore you account’s privileges.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Nov 13, 2013 at 20:10
  • @Scott Very good idea, you should post this as an answer.
    – Werner Henze
    Nov 14, 2013 at 8:03
  • Thanks, but I believe that my contribution isn’t enough to justify a separate answer. You identified the fact that “deny” ACEs override “allow” ACEs, and that the OP is being denied access because he’s an administrator. (I understand that stuff, but I didn’t put 2 and 2 together in the context of this question.) I’m just offering a variant on your answer, since there might not be another account that is granted access.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Nov 14, 2013 at 16:49
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Open folder properties->security->advanced->owner->edit select a owner(your username or adminstrator group),check "replace owner on sub container and objects" and click apply...

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