What is the SYSTEM group in Windows 7?
I want to disallow access to a drive in Windows 7, to all the users except myself (admin). So I have deleted all the users and groups in the drive's Security dialog but I am not sure whether I should also delete the "SYSTEM" group or not. If I delete it, does it mean that Windows won't have access to this drive anymore?
In general, does anybody know what this group is for?
3 Answers
I would probably leave it be. As I understand it, SYSTEM is used by many services etc. Actual users cannot put themselves into the SYSTEM group without being an administrator (and even then, I think you've got to do it with some strange method..).
The NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM account is used by most Windows services (via LocalSystem). Removing it won't prevent the Windows kernel from accessing the drive, but it might break some services that do it.
Here is Microsoft's explanation of how the system account is used. It says
The system account is used by the operating system and by services that run under Windows.
