In an NTFS file system, each file and folder are assigned certain permissions. If it is a regular file/folder, almost anyone can make changes to it. However, if it is a critical system file, you may not be allowed to perform any actions. What this message means is that you are not authorized to make changes to an item. This can be due to several factors. In some cases, users have even reported they needed permission from the user account they were logged in from to modify an item.
Causes of “You Need Permission to Perform This Action”
You may be experiencing issues while trying to access, rename, edit, move, or even delete a file or folder on a Windows PC. This can occur due to any one of the following reasons:
You are logged in from a standard user account. The folder ownership has changed. You do not have the appropriate permissions. The file is encrypted. The file is corrupted. The user profile is corrupted. File/folder is locked by the service, system, or process.
Either way, you will find a solution to fix the issue below. But before we begin, let us discuss the different permissions types.
Types of Permissions in Windows
Windows uses the following set of 6 permissions for files and folders:
Full Control Modify Read & Execute List Folder Contents Read Write
Each of these permission types has a dedicated role which you can then modify for each user or user group. The table below highlights what each of these permission types allows. Now that you understand what each of these permissions does when allotted, let us move on to fixing the issue.
Fix Folder/File Access Denied
You may be presented with either one of the following dialog boxes: To resolve this issue, perform the following tasks in the given chronological order.
Log in as Administrator
To begin with, you must first ensure that you are logged in from an administrative account. Administrative accounts have complete control over the computer, as well as the other user accounts on it. To check if your account is a standard account or an administrator, navigate to the following: Here you will see the status of your user account. Learn how to change your user account type or create a new administrator account. Now that you are logged in with administrative privileges, try making changes to the file/folder again. If it still does not work, you must then modify the permissions or take ownership of the item itself.
Give User Account Full Control
We must now give the user account you are logged into full control of the file/folder you want to modify. To do this, follow these steps: You will now successfully add a user account or group to grant it access to the chosen item with full control. Check to see if you can now make modifications without seeing the “Access Denied” prompt. Right-click on the file/folder and then click Properties from the context menu. This will open the “Select Users or Groups” window. This will fetch the details of all the users and groups on your computer. The user/group has now been selected and will be added to the list. If this solution did not work for you, then try taking ownership of the item.
Change Ownership
Taking ownership of a file or folder means it is yours, and you can do as you please. However, we do not recommend that you take ownership of system files and directories, as manipulating them could turn fatal for your OS. Once you have taken ownership of the item, you will no longer need permissions from any other account, let it be a SYSTEM, TrustedInstaller, or any other for that matter. Follow these steps to take ownership of a file or folder on a Windows PC: Alternative to this method, you can also take ownership of an item by using Command Prompt. Right-click on the file/folder and then click Properties from the context menu. This will open the “Select Users or Groups” window. This will fetch the details of all the users and groups on your computer. The user account has now been selected and will be made the owner of the file/folder. Then click “Remove all inherited permissions from this object.” If prompted with a dialog box, click Ok. You will now have complete ownership of the file/folder. After these steps, you should be able to make changes to the item without obstacles.
