Delete “access denied” folders or files

Symptom: you have identified files or folders belonging to spyware, malware, or adware that cannot be deleted since some background service has the files or folders locked. You receive a message “access denied” when attempting to delete them and uninstalling the malware from Add/Remove programs, or deleting associated Regkeys, still does not remove the files.

1. Right click on the folder, or file(s), and select Properties.
2. Click on the Security tab.
3. Highlight the Administrators group, and then click Remove. You should not have to highlight any other groups or user names.
4. When prompted with a message “you cannot remove xxxxx/xxxxx because this object is inheriting permissions from its parent, click on "OK" to the message, and then click the “Advanced” button.
5. Uncheck the box for “inherit from parent the permission entries……”
6. When prompted with another dialog “selecting this option means the parent permission entries…… will no longer be applied….” click “Remove”.
7. Still in the Advanced Security Settings dialog, click Add.
8. In the Select User or Group dialog, type in “Everyone” (no quotes) in the “Enter the object…” field, then click on "OK".
9. In the Permissions Entry dialog, check off “Full Control”. All other boxes should automatically be checked off. Click on "OK".
10. In the Advanced Security Settings dialog again, “Everyone” should appear in the Permissions entries field, and under “Inherited From”, should appear.
11. Click on "OK" again to exit that dialog.
12. Click on "OK" to exit the folder or file Properties dialog.

Try deleting the folders or files. You may need to reboot the PC in order to release the current security settings from memory. Once restarted, try deleting the items again. If removing malware from a PC, this is a good start toward disabling the software, especially where Add/Remove Programs, or registry key deletions have not worked.

You can also check out this utility.