Took Ownership of C: Drive, but Want to Give it Back

[accidentalowner]

Using Windows 10 on a Toshiba Satellite laptop I got earlier this year. A few days ago, I found that apps wouldn't launch; it didn't matter if it was from the Start Menu or a shortcut on the Desktop, only apps that were pinned to the taskbar would open. I went searching and found this page with several fixes for the issue: http://windowsreport.com/windows-10-apps-wont-open/

I went with the second method listed - "Change ownership of the C: Drive"
I changed the Owner from TrustedInstaller to Administrators and selected "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects." This turned up a notice that it couldn't change certain files, so I just skipped those. As this was changing the ownership of the files, I read the comments and a lot of people said doing this messed up their computer (I know, I should have read the comments first), so I canceled it. Windows told me that canceling now could cause issues because ownership of not every file had been changed to Administrators.

I decided to just save my files and reinstall Windows. I went with Microsoft's Windows 10 Refresh Tool, which my computer recommended when I told it I wanted to reset my PC. I wanted a fresh install. After two separate attempts reinstalling Windows, the owner is still Administrator, even though I'm choosing a full reinstall saving no files. I'm not sure what else I can do differently to get a clean reinstall that will reset the Owner to TrustedInstaller.

Advice? Thanks!

 

[Colif]

Fresh install is only way as it will use files untainted by the current permission changes.

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB, and use that to install off

Guide to clean install: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

When you hit screen asking for licence, click "I don't have one" and win 10 should auto activate once installed.

Shame the factory reset feature in laptop uses windows: http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/System-Recovery-and-Recovery/How-do-I-reset-my-Windows-10-computer-to-factory-defaults/ta-p/657990

 

[accidentalowner]

Fresh install is only way as it will use files untainted by the current permission changes.

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB, and use that to install off

Guide to clean install: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

When you hit screen asking for licence, click "I don't have one" and win 10 should auto activate once installed.

Shame the factory reset feature in laptop uses windows: http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/System-Recovery-and-Recovery/How-do-I-reset-my-Windows-10-computer-to-factory-defaults/ta-p/657990

Thanks. I'm going to give this a go and I'll report back when it's done.