Solved HELP! New Win11 Accounts with Administrator rights not able to modify C drive

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

Hi all,
Somehow, any new accounts with Administrator privileges could not make any changes to C drive. The account that was used to install the Windows 11 worked fine. Even the YHotmail account used for activating Windows 11 also lost access to the OS drive.

Does anyone know why it is the case?

Thanks

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

What kind of modifications?

spapakons · Jul 30, 2024

As far as I know any Administrator account, either local or Microsoft is asked for permission (UAC popup window) in order to write data to C: or C:\Program Files, C:\Program Files (x86) and C:\Windows. You just grant permission and proceed.

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

FreeBooter said:
What kind of modifications?

Copy files to C drive, modify desktop icons etc.

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

The NTFS permission on C: is for your protection, it prevents unwanted and accidental modifications it also protects you from malware infection.

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

P Nguyen said:
Copy files to C drive, modify desktop icons etc.

You can copy to root of C: drive but you may ask for permission to do so for some other actions like deleting file.

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

spapakons said:
As far as I know any Administrator account, either local or Microsoft is asked for permission (UAC popup window) in order to write data to C: or C:\Program Files, C:\Program Files (x86) and C:\Windows. You just grant permission and proceed.

It only happens on this Win11 pro PC and it's driving me NUTS. I'm very experienced with Windows PC stuff

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

P Nguyen said:
It only happens on this Win11 pro PC and it's driving me NUTS. I'm very experienced with Windows PC stuff

If you were an experienced Windows OS user, the NTFS permission should not hold you back or get confused by it.

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

FreeBooter said:
The NTFS permission on C: is for your protection, it prevents unwanted and accidental modifications it also protects you from malware infection.

Accounts with Administrator rights should have access to most of C drive but it is NOT in this case

spapakons · Jul 30, 2024

I know it is annoying to see the UAC prompt, but you just grant access and that's it. If you have set a user password and it is to long to type every time, maybe you can assign a 4-digit PIN which is much easier. Another trick is to avoid copy-paste files directly at the root folder C:\ Just create another folder such as C:\data and copy-paste files there. You will never been asked for permission unless you encrypt or otherwise restrict access to the folder.

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

P Nguyen said:
Accounts with Administrator rights should have access to most of C drive but it is NOT in this case

You can access C: drive with no problem tell us which folder you cannot access?

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

FreeBooter said:
If you were an experienced Windows OS user, the NTFS permission should not hold you back or get confused by it.

How do I assign permissions to accounts with Administration rights is my question?

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

FreeBooter said:
You can access C: drive with no problem tell us which folder you cannot access?

Could not even copy a txt file to root of C:\

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

P Nguyen said:
How do I assign permissions to accounts with Administration rights is my question?

Don't play with default NTFS permissions you will get in lots of problems.

spapakons · Jul 30, 2024

Like I said Windows 10/11 ask for permission to directly access the root of C:. This is to prevent malware hiding there. Jus create a folder c:\data and copy-paste there.

If you do want to risk it, you have to assign full access to all folders and subfolders in C: to your account. This will take too long to complete and you have to reply Yes to every sensitive folder to include that too. I had done it once, but you as for trouble as already mentioned.

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

P Nguyen said:
Could not even copy a txt file to root of C:\

These are default permissions even built-in Administrator user account have restrictions.

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

spapakons said:
I know it is annoying to see the UAC prompt, but you just grant access and that's it. If you have set a user password and it is to long to type every time, maybe you can assign a 4-digit PIN which is much easier. Another trick is to avoid copy-paste files directly at the root folder C:\ Just create another folder such as C:\data and copy-paste files there. You will never been asked for permission unless you encrypt or otherwise restrict access to the folder.

I tried to login/sign into the MS Hotmail account but it asked me to use a School or Company account instead. Huh?

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

FreeBooter said:
These are default permissions even built-in Administrator user account have restrictions.

I could do that with my main Admin account but not with a newly created Admin account. Why is that?

FreeBooter · Jul 30, 2024

P Nguyen said:
I could do that with my main Admin account but not with a newly created Admin account. Why is that?

Even built-in Admin have to deal with NTFS file/folder permission but have more power when modifying the files and folders permissions, that is why we advise not to use this user account.

P Nguyen · Jul 30, 2024

spapakons said:
Like I said Windows 10/11 ask for permission to directly access the root of C:. This is to prevent malware hiding there. Jus create a folder c:\data and copy-paste there.

If you do want to risk it, you have to assign full access to all folders and subfolders in C: to your account. This will take too long to complete and you have to reply Yes to every sensitive folder to include that too. I had done it once, but you as for trouble as already mentioned.

I can do it using this account after giving it access. But with the other Admin account on this PC, the screen just blank for 1 sec with no UAC prompt.