"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file, you may not have appropriate permission to access the item" Why?

Whenever i try to access any folder on my computer(Windows 7), it tells me "Windows
cannot access the specified device, path, or file, you may not have appropriate permission to access the item",
this happens even for My
Computer and Control Panel. It's driving me nuts! I'll be honest here, I was trying to uninstall Visual
Studio 2013 Communityfrom my computer by going to Programs
and Features but for some reason, it was getting stuck at "Configuring
Your System". After trying it numerous times, I went to the visual studio installation directory, and removed
the installation files from there. I even removed the files from the C:\Program
Data folder, then i went back to Programs
and Features and tried to remove the listing there, but I got a dialog box saying "you
don't have sufficient access to uninstall visual studio" . I googled this problem and found this  solution
(http://superuser.com/a/174198)
 then i tried using the solution, I used SubinAcl and
changed the registry permissions as mentioned in the solution and ended up like this!
All the access permissions are set correctly (that's what I can make out...)
Please Help!

Hi
Some required information are needed for us to help you.
Hi NabeelOmer,
We wonder if you have taken any action such as system restore after this issue occurred.
You might also try this command to restore your access control list.
Run this command to navigate to the drive letter, example is D
D:
To reset all permissions, run this command
icacls * /reset /t /c /q
Visual Studio is a very invasive program and which provides the ability to enumerate projects and solutions for system, user should never try uninstalling it manually without any guidance.
Visual Studio made changes for your whole system, if the file has been moved or deleted this error would occur.
Since you mentioned that you get this error almost everywhere even in control panel. We suggest you repair/reinstall your Visual Studio first and check if it could be fixed.
How to: Repair Visual Studio
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983433%28v=vs.90%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
Regards
D. Wu

Similar Messages

  • "Windows cannot access the specified device,path, or file.You may not have the appropiate permission

    We subscribe to a service called "Vault" which provies its documents in encrypted PDFs using the etd format. As well as Digitial Editions we have Acrobat Reader 9 installed on our PCs (Windows XP,SP2). When a user tries to download any of the documents they are seeing the following error:
    "Windows cannot access the specified device,path, or file.You may not have the appropiate permissions to access the item."
    However, if they open Digitial Edtions (or have had it open at some point in the past) before they download the document it opens without any problems. We use ZEN works to manage our PCs, and we use something called Dynamic Local User (DLU) which means that when a students logs into a PC the user's local Windows account is created on the fly, and then when they log out it is then deleted. This means that they are effectively using Digitial Edtions for the first time everytime they log into a PC.
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    Any advice/tips would be most welcome.

    Hi
    Some required information are needed for us to help you.
    Hi NabeelOmer,
    We wonder if you have taken any action such as system restore after this issue occurred.
    You might also try this command to restore your access control list.
    Run this command to navigate to the drive letter, example is D
    D:
    To reset all permissions, run this command
    icacls * /reset /t /c /q
    Visual Studio is a very invasive program and which provides the ability to enumerate projects and solutions for system, user should never try uninstalling it manually without any guidance.
    Visual Studio made changes for your whole system, if the file has been moved or deleted this error would occur.
    Since you mentioned that you get this error almost everywhere even in control panel. We suggest you repair/reinstall your Visual Studio first and check if it could be fixed.
    How to: Repair Visual Studio
    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983433%28v=vs.90%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
    Regards
    D. Wu

  • Firefox updated to 6.0.1 and now I cannot open it, or even reload it, without the message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file, You may not have the approprate permission to access the item."

    This is a new problem... I've never had issues with Firefox before. I use firefox for everything at work and it is beyond inconvienent to not be able to access my websites, etc.

    Do a clean reinstall and download a fresh Firefox copy from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all.html and save the file to the desktop.
    Uninstall your current Firefox version and remove the Firefox program folder before installing that copy of the Firefox installer.<br />
    Don't remove personal data when uninstalling.
    It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
    You can skip the step to create a new profile, that is not necessary for this issue.
    See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

  • When i try to open firefox it tells me windows cannot access the specified device, path or file, you may not have the apperioate permission to open the item. I have tried to uninstall and re install and it still will not open.

    this happened when i downloaded the latest patch and i have not been able to access it since.

    I would expect wording related to connection, but see
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  • I have been using thelatest ver firefox. Noe I can not access it. I receive the following message" Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have appropriate permission to access. I am using windows XP ,

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    Do a clean (re)install and delete the Firefox program folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\).
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    *Firefox 13.0.x: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html
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    Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
    *It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
    *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
    Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.
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    *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
    *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

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    Hi
    Some required information are needed for us to help you.
    Hi NabeelOmer,
    We wonder if you have taken any action such as system restore after this issue occurred.
    You might also try this command to restore your access control list.
    Run this command to navigate to the drive letter, example is D
    D:
    To reset all permissions, run this command
    icacls * /reset /t /c /q
    Visual Studio is a very invasive program and which provides the ability to enumerate projects and solutions for system, user should never try uninstalling it manually without any guidance.
    Visual Studio made changes for your whole system, if the file has been moved or deleted this error would occur.
    Since you mentioned that you get this error almost everywhere even in control panel. We suggest you repair/reinstall your Visual Studio first and check if it could be fixed.
    How to: Repair Visual Studio
    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983433%28v=vs.90%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
    Regards
    D. Wu

  • Windows can not find specified device, path or file. You may not have appropriate permission to access

    What do I need to change to get past this? I tried changing all user accounts to administrator, but to no avail.

    Hi
    Some required information are needed for us to help you.
    Hi NabeelOmer,
    We wonder if you have taken any action such as system restore after this issue occurred.
    You might also try this command to restore your access control list.
    Run this command to navigate to the drive letter, example is D
    D:
    To reset all permissions, run this command
    icacls * /reset /t /c /q
    Visual Studio is a very invasive program and which provides the ability to enumerate projects and solutions for system, user should never try uninstalling it manually without any guidance.
    Visual Studio made changes for your whole system, if the file has been moved or deleted this error would occur.
    Since you mentioned that you get this error almost everywhere even in control panel. We suggest you repair/reinstall your Visual Studio first and check if it could be fixed.
    How to: Repair Visual Studio
    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983433%28v=vs.90%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
    Regards
    D. Wu

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    Hi,
    Thanks for posting in Windows Server Forum.
    As this thread has been quiet for a while, we assume that the issue has been resolved. At this time, we will mark it as ‘Answered’ as the previous steps should be helpful for many similar scenarios. If the issue still persists, please feel free to  reply
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