Error message (XP SP2)

[bobchapman]

I have been using my computer to back up file from my church. i use a jump drive to copy a few critical files from the church computer onto it, and then use it to tranfer the info to my home computer. So far, so good. But now I'm done with that info, and want to delete it from my computer.

When I try to delete those files from my computer, i get "access denied" error message. But I'm working in Administrator mode. How can this be, and what do i have to do to get rid of these files (some are programs and some are data files).

Thnks
Bob Chapman

[TonyE]

You need to change the security permissions for the files, see How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

[StuartR]

Two possibilities:

1. <LI>The files are marked read only. Right click a file and look at it's properties, if the Read-Only check box is checked then clear this.
   <LI>The permissions on the files don't allow the Administrator to delete them. See this article for how to take ownership of the files and see if that fixes it.

StuartR

[kaplinb]

Probably Windows marked your files still "in use". Usually you can delete them easily after restarting the computer. If it is not work, consider this article:

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

To uninstall programs, click Start | Control panel | Add or Remove Programs, select the program from the list and click "Uninstall" button (this button appears when you select the program).

[bobchapman]

Thanks you for your suggestions. I tried the solution that was common to all your suggestions; namely to work through the Properties | Security | Advanced ... method of fixing this. But when i click on Properties, there is no Security tab!! Am I doing something wrong???

[Rebel]

There is NO Security Tab if you are using Simple File Sharing (which is the default in XP Pro and the only choice in the normal mode of XP Home). Read the article that was referenced in several of the other previous posts. It tells you how to do this in XP Pro AND XP Home.