Using SECEDIT.EXE in Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7
In Windows XP Professional, you may use the following secedit command-line to reset the file and registry permissions to defaults.
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%repairsecsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose
Using SubInACL in Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7
For Windows XP Home Edition (and Professional Edition), you may use the SubInACL tool to reset the registry and file permissions. Download and then install the Subinacl.exe (~370 KB) from Microsoft. SubInACL is a command-line tool that enables administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys, etc.
Open Notepad, copy the commands below and save the file as reset.cmd. Double-click the file to run it. This script file may take a long time to run. Registry and file permissions in your system should be reset.
Add this code into Notepad and save the file as "Reset.cmd"
Double click on Reset.cmd this will reset all your system permissions to out of the box defaults, once complete reboot your computer!
Note: If you’re seeing the error Service Pack 3 setup error. Access is denied when installing Windows XP Service Pack 3, to verify if the error is caused by incorrect registry permissions, open the file C:WindowsSvcpack.log using Notepad and look for the text Access is denied or DoRegistryUpdates failed.
In Windows XP Professional, you may use the following secedit command-line to reset the file and registry permissions to defaults.
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%repairsecsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose
Using SubInACL in Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7
For Windows XP Home Edition (and Professional Edition), you may use the SubInACL tool to reset the registry and file permissions. Download and then install the Subinacl.exe (~370 KB) from Microsoft. SubInACL is a command-line tool that enables administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys, etc.
Open Notepad, copy the commands below and save the file as reset.cmd. Double-click the file to run it. This script file may take a long time to run. Registry and file permissions in your system should be reset.
Add this code into Notepad and save the file as "Reset.cmd"
cd /d "%ProgramFiles%Windows Resource KitsTools"
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%repairsecsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose
Double click on Reset.cmd this will reset all your system permissions to out of the box defaults, once complete reboot your computer!
Note: If you’re seeing the error Service Pack 3 setup error. Access is denied when installing Windows XP Service Pack 3, to verify if the error is caused by incorrect registry permissions, open the file C:WindowsSvcpack.log using Notepad and look for the text Access is denied or DoRegistryUpdates failed.