I login as the build-in admin and try to change owner for a folder:
After I click on the Change link, I suppose to get a dialog box to enter new users, but instead, I got the following:
WHAT??? The folder belongs to an user associated with a Microsoft account but I removed the user already and want to clean up the left over files and folders.
32 Answers
See if you can read the ACL on the directory with cacls. There's a good chance you'll see an entry like Everyone:(DENY)(special access:)FILE_READ_DATA or something similar right at the start that's preventing you from doing anything. Edit the ACL to remove that entry:
cacls dirname /e /r everyoneAs an admin, this will work for you.
Just like Vista and Windows 7, the latest Windows 8 also requires you to take ownership of a system file or folder before editing it. That is, if you want to modify a file or folder in Windows 8, you need to take the ownership of the particular file or folder to be able to edit it.
It's a registry tweak that adds an option "Take Ownership" to your right click menu in Windows. Should do the trick for you. Just be careful to not do it to system files that are generally OS only, or you could run into a few issues (but sounds unlikely from your situation.)
