While trying to delete, copy, move or rename some files or folders in Windows you may get the error: “You need permission to perform this action” followed by “You require permission from the computer’s administrator to make changes to this file or folder“.

This “Access Denied” error means that you are not authorized to make any changes to that file or folder, thought it may occur even if you are administrator.

In this note i will show how to fix the permissions on a file or folder and get rid of the “You need permission to perform this action” error in Windows.

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You Need Permission to Perform This Action

“Right-click” on the the file or folder you want to fix the permissions, select the “Properties”, then select the “Security” tab and click on the “Advanced” button:

If there is a wrong user in the “Owner” field or there is a message “Unable to display current owner“, click on the “Change”:

This will open a “Select User or Group” dialog, where you should click on the “Advanced”:

Click on the “Find Now” button, select your user name, click on the “OK” button to close the “Advanced” dialog and then one more “OK” to confirm the owner selection:

Once the proper owner is selected, you will appear again in the “Advanced Security Settings” dialog, where you can remove the incorrect permission entries (if any) and click on the “Add” button to create the proper ones:

In the “Permission Entry” dialog, click on the “Select a principal”:

Click on the “Find Now” button, select the required user or group (e.g. your user name or the “Administrators” group), click on the “OK” button to close the “Advanced” dialog and then one more “OK” to confirm the principal selection:

This will bring you back to the “Permission Entry” dialog where you can give the “Full control” permission to the selected user or group:

Once done, the fixed permissions should look something like:

Close the dialog and try to delete, copy, move or rename the file or folder with which you had the “Access Denied” issue before.

After setting the proper owner and permissions on the file or folder, you should not see any “You need permission to perform this action” or “You require permission from the computer’s administrator to make changes to this file or folder” errors anymore.

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