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Examples

These examples show common tasks with the NTFSSecurity module. Replace the sample paths and accounts with your own. For background, see Concepts.

Changing permissions on items you don't own, changing owners, and every audit operation need an elevated PowerShell session. See Privileges.

Read permissions

Get the access entries of a folder:

Get-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data

Get the access entries of every item in a folder:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Data | Get-NTFSAccess

Get only the explicit entries in a folder tree, including items with paths longer than 260 characters:

Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse | Get-NTFSAccess -ExcludeInherited

Get the entries of one account, either with -Account or with Where-Object:

Get-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data -Account 'CONTOSO\JohnDoe'
Get-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data | Where-Object { $_.Account -like '*JohnDoe*' }

Grant permissions

Give an account the Modify permission on a folder, its subfolders, and its files:

Add-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data -Account 'CONTOSO\JohnDoe' -AccessRights Modify

Give a group read access to a folder and its subfolders, but not to the files:

Add-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data -Account 'CONTOSO\Domain Users' -AccessRights ReadAndExecute -AppliesTo ThisFolderAndSubfolders

Deny a group the right to delete anything in a folder:

Add-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data\Public -Account 'CONTOSO\Interns' -AccessRights Delete, DeleteSubdirectoriesAndFiles -AccessType Deny

Remove permissions

Remove an entry by account and rights:

Remove-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data -Account 'CONTOSO\JohnDoe' -AccessRights Modify

Remove all explicit entries of an account by piping them to Remove-NTFSAccess:

Get-NTFSAccess -Path C:\Data -Account 'CONTOSO\JohnDoe' -ExcludeInherited | Remove-NTFSAccess

Back up and restore permissions

Save the explicit entries of a folder and everything below it to a CSV file:

$items = @(Get-Item2 -Path C:\Data) + @(Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse)
$items | Get-NTFSAccess -ExcludeInherited | Export-Csv -Path C:\Backup\permissions.csv -NoTypeInformation

Restore the entries. Each row contains the path, account, rights, type, and inheritance settings of one entry, which Add-NTFSAccess binds by property name:

Import-Csv -Path C:\Backup\permissions.csv | Add-NTFSAccess

Restoring adds the saved entries. It doesn't remove entries that were added after the backup.

Find and remove orphaned entries

List entries whose account no longer exists:

Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse | Get-NTFSOrphanedAccess

Remove them:

Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse | Get-NTFSOrphanedAccess | Remove-NTFSAccess

Review the list before you remove anything. An account also looks orphaned when Windows can't resolve it temporarily, for example because a domain controller is unreachable.

Check effective access

Show the access that the current user has on a folder:

Get-NTFSEffectiveAccess -Path C:\Data

Show the access of another account, by name or by SID:

Get-NTFSEffectiveAccess -Path C:\Data -Account 'CONTOSO\JohnDoe'
Get-NTFSEffectiveAccess -Path C:\Data -Account S-1-5-32-545

Manage inheritance

Find the folders that don't inherit permissions from their parent:

Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse -Directory | Get-NTFSInheritance | Where-Object { -not $_.AccessInheritanceEnabled }

Turn inheritance back on for a whole folder tree. Explicit entries stay in place:

Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse | Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance

Block inheritance on a folder. The inherited entries are copied as explicit entries:

Disable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path C:\Data\Finance

Reset a folder to inherited permissions only:

Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path C:\Data\Finance -RemoveExplicitAccessRules

Manage ownership

List the owners of all items in a folder tree:

Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse | Get-NTFSOwner

Make the local Administrators group the owner of a folder. This needs an elevated session:

Set-NTFSOwner -Path C:\Data -Account 'BUILTIN\Administrators'

Make several changes in one write

Get the security descriptor once, change it in memory, and write it back. With security descriptor input, specify -AppliesTo (or the inheritance and propagation flags) so that PowerShell can choose the parameter set:

$sd = Get-NTFSSecurityDescriptor -Path C:\Data
$sd | Add-NTFSAccess -Account 'CONTOSO\JohnDoe' -AccessRights Modify -AppliesTo ThisFolderSubfoldersAndFiles
$sd | Remove-NTFSAccess -Account 'CONTOSO\Interns' -AccessRights ReadAndExecute -AppliesTo ThisFolderSubfoldersAndFiles
$sd | Set-NTFSSecurityDescriptor

Audit access

Log every successful and failed attempt to delete items in a folder. This needs an elevated session, and Windows only writes the events when the Audit File System policy is enabled:

Add-NTFSAudit -Path C:\Data\Finance -Account 'Everyone' -AccessRights Delete, DeleteSubdirectoriesAndFiles
Get-NTFSAudit -Path C:\Data\Finance

Work with long paths

Find files whose full path is longer than 260 characters and show their permissions:

Get-ChildItem2 -Path C:\Data -Recurse -File | Where-Object { $_.FullName.Length -gt 260 } | Get-NTFSAccess

Use privileges

List the privileges of the current PowerShell process:

Get-Privileges

In an elevated session, enable the Backup, Restore, Take Ownership, and Security privileges for the rest of the session, and disable them again when you're done:

Enable-Privileges
Get-ChildItem2 -Path D:\Shares -Recurse | Get-NTFSAccess -ExcludeInherited
Disable-Privileges