You Need Permission To Perform This Action Error

If you are using Windows 10 OS in your PC, you might have faced an error that pops up with a message “You need permission to perform this action”. This irritating message may pop up while you try to use any files, folders, apps or want to delete any of them.

The error message might ask you to use administrator permission but this is not the only way to get rid of this error. If the file or folder is locked by any system process, the error might be shown up on the computer screen. Another reason is if any program is required by Windows the said message could be popped up.

How to troubleshoot “You need permission to perform this action Windows 10”?

Whenever the above message will be prompted you won’t be able to access the file, folder or the program. In this case, find the right workarounds for this problem. We have come up with some excellent tricks that will probably work best for you.

Trick #1: Use a Command Prompt to Activate Administrator Permission

When the error note prompts, it asks to use administrator permission and that’s why the first approach is to activate administrator permission.

Use a Command Prompt to Activate Administrator Permission

For that, you should open the Command Prompt from the Start menu in administrative mode and type the following command “net user administrator/active:yes”. Make sure to press Enter after that and close the window.

Now, try to delete the file and see if the method has solved the problem yet.

Trick #2: Use or Delete the File from your PC in Safe Mode

Before using your computer in Safe Mode, scan your PC for viruses and malware because those could be the reason for asking permission to open or delete a file, program, folder, etc.

Use or Delete the File from your PC in Safe Mode

You can then use Windows defender for this purpose. If scanning does not solve the issue, you can perform the task in Safe Mode that is enabled on your PC. Follow the below-mentioned instructions to know how you could use Safe Mode.

Turn off and turn on your PC three times repeatedly and after that, your PC will reboot with an option to Troubleshoot.
Navigate “Troubleshoot > Advanced Option > Startup Settings > Restart”

Note: Windows 7 users will hit F8 and Windows 10/8/8.1 users will hit F4 before the Windows loading screen.

Select Safe Mode and when the PC is turned on try to delete or open the file.

Trick #3: Change the Ownership of the Defective Item

If “You need permission to perform this action” message is displaying for a particular file or folder, you can change the ownership of the item in order to solve the issue. We have described the steps of how you can do that in the below section.

Change the Ownership of the Defective Item

Right-click on the particular item and choose “Properties”.
Go to the “Security” tab and tap on the “Advanced” option.
When a new window will prompt, click on “Change”.
After that, the “Select User or Group” window will show up and type your username in the space below “Enter the object name to select (examples)”. Then, hit the OK button after that.
Tick the box of the “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” and press OK.
Again press OK to close the window and try deleting the item.

Hopefully, this time you will be able to delete or open the item without any further errors.

Trick #4: Check the Administrator Permission for the Particular File

Sometimes, if the system administrator does not allow some permission, a file or folder might not open or could not be deleted. Changing ownership of a file or folder might not solve the problem. Hence, it’s better to change the administrator permission. Below are the guidelines that you should follow to allow the administrator permission.

Check the Administrator Permission for the Particular File

Right-click on the particular item and select “Properties”.
Switch over to the “Security” tab in the Properties window and click on the “Edit” option.
Select the account name under the “Group and user names” window and check if all the options under the “Allow” column in the Permission section are selected.
Click on “Apply” followed by the OK button.

Note: If you don’t find the desired account in the “Group and user names” window, click on the Add button in that same window. When a new window will appear, type your user name in the space below “Enter the object names and select” and tap on “Check Names”. Press the OK button.

If you don’t know the user name, click on the Advanced button and tap on the “Find Now” button in the next window. Select your desired account from the search results and press OK. Click on the OK button again and repeat the last two steps mentioned above in this method.

Trick #5: Add your User Account in the Administrator Group Membership

If the above method does not work to solve the “You need permission to perform this action” error message, this means you need to give some more administrative privileges to your user account. Here are the tips that you can apply for the workarounds of the file permission issue.

Add your User Account in the Administrator Group Membership

Press Windows+X and select “Computer Management” from the Quick Access menu.
Navigate through the path “Computer Management (Local) > Local Users and Groups > Users”.
Double-click on your user account located at the right panel.
Switch over to the “Member Of” tab and tap on the “Add” button.
Type “Administrators” in the field provided under “Enter the object names to select” section.
Click on “Check Names” followed by OK to close the window.
Select “Administrator” in the next window and hit OK.

Restart your PC and try opening or deleting the respective file or folder to see if the problem is fixed.

Hopefully, you have solved the file permission issue by having one of the above methods. If you are still facing the same issue you can have a fresh reinstallation of your operating system.