This is a manual translation of one of my very old entries from 2011. It still generates hits and even more, it generates feedback from people still looking for this tip and it helps them.
Well. You have this old system disk drive lieing around, there are some files you want to leave on it but also others you want to get rid off. Like the old Windows, Programs and Programs (x86) – you don’t need them. Easiest way is of course just formatting the whole thing. But sometimes formatting isn’t what you want to do. Just delete those pesky folders and everything is fine. Deletion from withing the Windows Explorer will prompt you to get administrator privileges, which you get by confirming with the UAC. And look how easy that went – you usually hit a brick wall of error messages:
To delete these files you need the privileges of TrustetInstaller (something along these lines)
That is just awesome. The administrator, the most trusted user on a system, doesn’t have the privileges to delete those folders. You aren’t even deleting files your system currently needs, it is on an old drive! Some call it a security feature others will call it differently. I just want to get rid of those files.
