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I reinstalled Windows and my old OS drive is now the G drive, unused. I want to free up space, so I tried deleting G:\Windows\winsxs and it gave me a permission error. How can I delete this? I am an admin and I'm running explorer in admin mode.

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Zeno
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You could potentially play with the permissions by taking ownership and propagating down through the folder hierarchy, but that could be a lengthy process.

When faced with similar circumstances and I am absolutely certain it is something I want to delete, I typically boot the computer using one of the free Linux Live disc/USB distros so that it bypasses NTFS permissions. Something to consider.

Run5k
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  • I already have permission which is strange. MY-PC-NAME\Administrators has full rights. – Zeno Nov 25 '16 at 00:56
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    Based on the error message, your new Administrator user, isn't in the ACL list nor is it the owner of the folder. – Ramhound Nov 25 '16 at 01:41
  • Your admin group and user would have a different unique ID. As others have said it would be easier to boot a linux live cd and delete that folder there. – Beige The Color Oct 23 '23 at 20:38
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Use the freeware application NTFSAccess to set permissions - works where all other suggestions fail.It can be downloaded from here https://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/ntfsaccess. Run the application,and browse to the folder Windows\WinSxS.By default both options Set Folder Owner and Set folder full access rights are selected, so then Grant - the process will take a while due to the size of the folder. On completion, the folder can be deleted.

Arturos
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