WTF is this undeleteable file cclitesetupui.exe doing on my hard drive?
Relax. It’s not hurting anything, but it doesn’t need to be there.
Here’s how to remove it.
I, like you, hate to find a big chunk of useless crap on my hard drive—especially one that withstands all reasonable attempts to remove it.
When VISTA was installed on your machine, like as not, Microsoft installed a big hunk o’ MSN Connection Center Dial-up Internet Access connector installation files. They are there just in case—you know—you want to use MSN as your dial-up ISP. It’s not tremendously huge—just about 3 meg or so—but, personally, I’m a little squeamish about helpful, just-in-case executables that happen to be marked as undeletable system files. CCLITESETUPUI is usually located in:
C:\Program Files\MSN\cclitesetupui.exe
Since this file is part of the windows VISTA installation, it’s protected by Windows Resource Protection (WRP), which prevents any modifications outside of Windows Setup. IOW: You can’t delete it without messing around with permissions and such like.
It’s entirely removable
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Warning: It is not recommended that you delete this file, or any WRP-protected file. Doing so may result in unforeseen consequences.
Changing permissions on VISTA files through the control panel can be confusing. Here’s a simpler way to delete this WRP protected file in
Windows Vista Home edition.
- Click start
- Click All Programs
- Click Accessories
- Right-Click command prompt
- Click run as administrator
Then type the following commands exactly as they appear, pressing enter after each line (The commands in the following list have been corrected thanks to Watcher13!) to :
cd /d %programfiles%
takeown /f msn /r /a /d y
icacls MSN /grant administrators:f /t
rd /s /q msn
That’s it. All gone. You’re welcome.
thanks
Thanks, I had done something similar on an individual file based on an MS page, but this helped me streamline the process.
However, it didn’t exactly work for me. Your sequence gave me control of the MSN folder, but I still couldn’t delete, because I didn’t have admin rights over cclitesetupui.exe. Reading the help by entering icacls /? (I know you know, I’m just spelling it out for your readers) I added the /t switch at the end, which also gave me control over all the files in the folder. I imagine it’s just a typo in your post. Also, you used the parentheses signifying the f as one potential switch, but to be clear for us newbies, it’s:
icacls MSN /grant administrators:f /t
If I’m missing something, let me know, but that’s what worked for me. Like I say, though, they were some other things I was doing less efficiently, so your post helped me streamline.
Thanks, again.
Interesting blog.
Thanks a million, Watcher13–I made the changes you suggested.
Best wishes,
Annie
Thanks so much, this helped me. I was so tired of trying to figure out how to delete it I even called up HP who referred me to MSN who referred me to Best Buy who referred me to Microsoft who referred me to MSN….I love corporate bs.