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So i'm running Windows 7 and I went into the 'Seturity' tab in the properties menu of the folder '\Network\Username\SharedDocs'.

I set all read/write permissions to deny thinking that I would still be able to access the folder and no-one else will and now I cant open it without it saying 'You do not have permission to access \Network\Username\SharedDocs please contact the network administrator'.

I'm the administrator of the pc, how can I change these permissions back?

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— setting explicit Deny entries will block even administrators. The usual recovery is to take ownership of the folder on the machine that actually hosts it, then reset or regrant NTFS permissions. pointed toward Microsoft documentation; below are concise, practical steps you can run (replace the path with the real one and run an elevated Command Prompt).

Open an elevated Command Prompt on the host computer and run:

takeown /F "\\Server\Share\SharedDocs" /R /D Y

icacls "\\Server\Share\SharedDocs" /reset /T /C

icacls "\\Server\Share\SharedDocs" /grant Administrators:F /T

If you prefer to give access to the current user instead of Administrators:

icacls "\\Server\Share\SharedDocs" /grant YourDomain\YourUser:F /T

GUI alternative: Properties → Security → Advanced → Owner → Edit, change owner to your user or the Administrators group and check “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects.” Then remove the explicit Deny ACEs and add the necessary Allow entries.

Important notes and troubleshooting:

  • Run these commands on the machine that hosts the share; taking ownership remotely frequently fails.
  • Explicit Deny entries override Allow, so you must remove Deny ACEs after taking ownership.
  • Share permissions are separate from NTFS permissions — check Sharing → Advanced Sharing → Permissions.
  • Back up ACLs before changing them with icacls "<path>" /save aclfile /T so you can restore if needed.
  • If this is a domain file server and you lack server admin rights, ask the server administrator to perform the steps.

Microsoft command references: takeown command and icacls command.

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