How to disable SFC in Windows 7 x64?

[simurqq]

As the title reads, that's the question I face when I want to copy & replace default notepad.exe found in the System32 folder with notepad2.exe renamed to notepad.exe. A pop-up message says I cannot replace the system file with mine since it's protected.

It was possible to edit some registry entries in XP, and the problem would have been solved... Unofrtunately, I didn't find any "SFCQuota" entry/key in Windows 7 registry. My system is Windows 7 x64.

Anybody to help?!?

Thank you!

RUSTAM

[simurqq]

Noone to answer?!?

[iamtheky]

http://webdevel.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_we...246184802912349

http://blogs.msdn.com/omars/archive/2004/04/30/124093.aspx

Edited October 14, 2009 by iamtheky

[Leo Natan]

Ignore the above. What I will tell you is true for all files you want to modify. There is no such thing as SFC in Vista and 7, that's a thing of the (very far) past. Right click on the file you want to rename/delete (in your immediate case, C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe) and click properties. Go to the Security tab. Click on Advanced. Go to the Owner tab, and click Edit. Select your user account and click OK on all windows until you are back to the original File Properties dialog. You should be in the Security tab. Click on Edit. Select your user and give it full control. Now you can rename the file, edit it and delete it.

[gosh]

File protection is still in windows 7, its just the architecture has changed. There is no longer a dllcache, instead the files are locally installed as a filestore in the SXS cache. You can always go into safe mode to rename a protected file, but youll need to disable windows from restoring it from the SXS cache

[Leo Natan]

File protection is still in windows 7, its just the architecture has changed. There is no longer a dllcache, instead the files are locally installed as a filestore in the SXS cache. You can always go into safe mode to rename a protected file, but youll need to disable windows from restoring it from the SXS cache

Not true. First you can't rename something you have no write permissions - only TrustedInstaller has the write and modify permissions of system files, so even in Safe Mode, you will still have to take ownership and change permissions; so no point in going to Safe Mode. Also, there is no SXS cache restore. The files in other folders (ie C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe) are only hard links to the original files in the SXS store. So, if you rename the hard link and put another file in its stead, Windows will not replace that.

[Noise]

Not true. First you can't rename something you have no write permissions - only TrustedInstaller has the write and modify permissions of system files, so even in Safe Mode, you will still have to take ownership and change permissions; so no point in going to Safe Mode. Also, there is no SXS cache restore. The files in other folders (ie C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe) are only hard links to the original files in the SXS store. So, if you rename the hard link and put another file in its stead, Windows will not replace that.

Wow, I had no idea about this. Things are sure getting Unix-ish with nowadays. Thanks for the info!

[Leo Natan]

The best way to go... What was previously in place was annoying to the power user - you had to stop the SFC, but then all files were at risk. Now you can just change the permissions to a file, modify it and only it, and if need, remove permissions. Much more secure also.