I need to make a script that can delete unused windows profile folders.
I have a problem with getting permission to delete windows profile folders with PowerShell. Getting ownership with takeown.exe
works fine since I can see I get the ownership of the folder including its subfolders and files. The problem comes when I have to set the permissions(FullControl). It seems like the folder and its subfolders get the correct permissions, but the files don't, which obviously result in an error when I try to delete the folder.
I have tried to solve this by using takeown.exe
and icacls
together, and when that didn't get me anywhere I tried using takeown.exe
with Set-Acl
.
This code is when I tried using takeown.exe
and icacls
:
$folderPath = "\\profileserver\ProfileWin8\ro1.V2"
# Take ownership and set permissions
function takeOwnership($path) {
takeown.exe /F $path /A /r /d Y
icacls $path /grant administrators:F /q /c /t /inheritance:e
}
#Delete folder
function deleteFolder($path) {
Remove-Item $path -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Confirm:$false
}
takeOwnership($folderPath)
deleteFolder($folderPath)
Then I tried with Set-Acl
which doesnt work either. I have to use takeown.exe
for the folder since I don't have ownership and therefore wouldn't get the ACL object otherwise. I don't know if there is another way to get the ACL object without using takeown.exe
:
$folderPath = "\\profileserver\ProfileWin8\ro1.V2"
takeown.exe /F $folderPath /R /D Y
$acl = Get-Acl -Path $folderPath
$acl.Access | Write-Output
$colRights = [System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemRights]"FullControl"
$permission = "DOMAIN\user", $colRights, "ContainerInherit,ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow"
$accessRule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule $permission
$acl.AddAccessRule($accessRule)
$acl.SetAccessRuleProtection($false, $false)
$acl | Set-Acl $folderPath
Remove-Item $folderPath -Force -Recurse
I am still unsure which technique I should move forward with.