Account has lost all of it's permissions, how do I fix that?

Question

I made a secondary account when a guest came, and went to the C:\Users folder, right clicked on the main account, went to "Give access to" and then "Remove access". I messed with some other options as well, to make sure they can't enter.

Now, when I log on the main account, the screen is entirely black, no icons are shown, all of the folders on the taskbar are shown as white papers, and I don't have permission do anything on that account, or see anything.

I have to access the files on the main account, via some other account, by going to C:\Users\MainAccount and then typing the password of that account. And then I can access those files, but only from another account, never from that main account. What can I do to fix this?

Answer 1

It is exceptionally difficult to re-create appropriate permissions throughout a user account.

It is far easier to create a new user account and move things from the old to the new.

It is impossible to document the correct permissions for each folder and file in your user account folder because these folders vary for each person.

In the future, to prevent accounts from accessing data in your account, make sure your own account is admin, but create the new accounts as Guests or limited users. These will not be able to access any account besides their own, and they will also not be able to change permissions to GAIN access to any files besides their own.

Answer 2

I had the problem too. If you have an account with adminrights, so you can grant/restore the permissions to your main account. If not you have to format your drive (easy way).

Or boot from a Linux Live-USB/CD copy the whole drive to the CD/USB or not NTFS formated device to delete the permission rights. And at the end copy it back. After this you can maybe access to the data with your main account. In my case a got some data back and some not.

Good Luck