I restored my vista OS using a system image utility provided by Alienware.
It created a backup folder on the c drive with all the old files in it,
including user profiles. I changed the owner of all files and folders back
to my account and tried to delete it, but got the UAC messages that I need to
allow administrator rights to do so. After clicking yes, I got a message
that permission was denied with the only options of "Try Again" or "Cancel".
After making visible all hidden files and folders, I was able to drill down
to the one file I could not delete. I've used the "take ownership" steps in
Vista explorer properties, and also the "takeown" dos commands, which report
success that the Administrators group or my account which belongs to the
administrators group, is the owner of the file, and that I have full control
of it. Even so, I cannot delete this file. In DOS, I get access denied. In
Explorer, I get the "you need permission to perform this action" message,
with "try again" or "cancel", and it shows that my account (or administrators
group, doing it that way) is the owner. It's just this one file. I was able
to delete all other files and folders around this file, but just not this one.

I wonder if the folder path is so long or so nested that UAC fails to figure
it out? It was in users\my profile\appdata\roaming\etc. Or is the file
corrupt? The file is a tempory file created by one of those biometric
devices when logged on with your fingerprint, and is supposed to disappear
when you log off, but it seems to have remained there because of a hard boot.
Is there a utility I can use that can nuke this one lone file?

thanks