Can't change file Attributes as Administrator, Windows 10

I have a brand new DELL Win10 laptop. I have the only user account and I am administrator.

I am trying to change the file properties on a folder under C:\Program Files (x86), specifically, removing the Read-only Attribute. I un-click the Read-only box and hit 'Apply'. A dialog box opens: "Apply to folder, subfolder and files" is selected, and I hit 'OK'. Another dialog box opens: "Access Denied. You need to provide administrator permission to change these attributes. Click Continue to complete this operation." I click Continue (it has a little shield next to it) and the dialog box disappears. I 'OK' the Properties dialog box, but checking file properties again, the Read-only Attribute remains.

Under Properties/Security, 'Administrators' have Full control on this file, but 'Users' do not have Modify or Write permission.

I realize that numerous persons have presented this same issue, but I haven't found a solution that works for me. I've also tried using the command prompt:

> attrib -r +s <file path>

but I get "Access denied". It seems that I'm not being recognized as administrator. I have no problems modifying file properties of files that I've created or downloaded myself (.doc, .xls, .jpg, etc). I am at a loss because the app I'm running which created these files/folders needs to modify them.

ScottS

Additional notes: 

1) Under Properties/Security, all the permission check marks are grayed out and I cannot change them.

2) I am using Microsoft OneDrive.


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Hi Scott,
Since Vista administrator has two sets of access rights - administrator and user - and by default user rights are applyed. Rising to administrator righs is doing either manually (Run as administrator) or by each program settings.
User have only read access to Program Files folders.
Read-only attribute does not have any sense for folders and does not affect file access rights. That's why it is used for Windows internal purposes since Windows 98 and Windows does not allow to change it in most cases. This is absolutely normal and cannot be changed.
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Igor,

Thank you for your insightful comments. While I stated that I was trying to change the attributes of a folder, my real problem is that an app I am running generates database and index files in that folder. Although the app had no problem creating the databases the first time I ran it, subsequently runs produced the message "Unable to save changes to database file (rename new: DOS error 35)" when it would try to update a database or index. So I thought changing attributes on the folder/databases might fix my problem.

After receiving your comments, I decided to check how the app was working on my old laptop. It's also a Win10 machine, but was running Win7 when I first installed the app (it has no problems running). As you can guess, the folder was read also only, but the user has full access to the individual database files, so that was a difference.

So then I went back to my new machine, looking at the attributes of just the database/index files. I soon discovered that i do have the ability to change file access controls - but not how I had tried it before - by going to the Security tab, clicking Edit (I hadn't noticed that before), selecting Users => Full control => Apply => OK. That seemed to fix problem with many of the database update errors, but not all. I then went and gave Full control to All Application Packages. 

It's probably been about 20 years and 5-6 Windows OS updates since I last needed to change file attributes, so I guess I'm a little rusty. Thanks again for your inputs.

ScottS

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Last updated February 21, 2021 Views 5,264 Applies to: