Deleting "undeletable" files in Vista
- by Nik Reiman
I recently upgraded my workstation from XP SP3 to Vista Business, and during the upgrade Windows moved my old C:\Windows directory to C:\Windows.old. I got all of the stuff I needed out of that folder, but there are six "undeletable" files there so I cannot remove it. They are:
Windows.old\Program1\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Resource\CMap\Identity-H
Windows.old\Program1\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Resource\CMap\Identity-V
Windows.old\Program1\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
Windows.old\Program1\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
Windows.old\Program1\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroPDF.dll
Windows.old\Program1\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\pdfshell.dll
Whenever I try to delete the files either through explorer or a command line, I get a permission denied error. I have tried to grant myself full permission on the files, but again, permission denied. I don't even have acrobat installed on my Vista machine, and I uninstalled Adobe updater. However, I still can't manage to get rid of these files. How do I nuke them for good?
Edit: I was able to take ownership of the files, but I still can't delete them. Renaming them did not work, as I was denied permission to do that as well. I'll try booting up in safe mode and getting rid of them there.
Edit II: Booting up into safe mode did not allow me to delete the files. Bummer.
