Amazon EC2 Windows Server 2012 cannot delete file even as Administrator

Question

I cannot get Blender3D to run on my AWS EC2 instance. I get a message telling me that my system does not use 3D hardware acceleration.

I have all my drivers installed (NVidaGRID, etc) and have disabled the "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" in Device Manager.

No joy. Then, I came across the following post: https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?messageID=500885&

A user mentions that we should delete the BasicDisplay file C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\BasicDisplay.sys.

However, I cannot delete this file because I do not have permissions. I am logged into my EC2 instance via RDP (remote desktop protocol) as Administrator. I've taken ownership of the directory system32 and even tried with ownership of the Windows directory.

No joy.

Then I checked if there was a file in the directory that was locked and forced all files to be closed.

No joy.

Next, I tried running the command prompt as Administrator to remove the file.

No Joy.

Tried changing the attributes: Access denied.

Finally, I tried creating a new user account, gave it RDP permissions, made it an administrator, gave it ownership of system32 directory and wait for it...

No joy.

Seriously. What the *$@% is the problem here? I cannot log in via safe mode. How can I delete this file?

Answer 1

I have a solution. AWS is definitely not easy especially when it comes to going into safe mode and then being able to RDP. Open an elevated command prompt, type MSCONFIG, go to BOOT/select safe boot/select network/select boot log/select base video/select OS boot info. Restart. You will be able to then delete C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\BasicDisplay.sys once you have taken ownership from Trusted Installer. I have tried it several times and it works.