Access Denied Definition, What is Access Denied

Access Denied is a message displayed when unable to obtain access to a location that you have not been granted the proper access rights or do not have permission to access.

If you are attempting to access a network share or resource on a network, Intranet, or the Internet and are receiving this error, you must contact the administrator or individual responsible for that network to obtain rights to that resource.

Although this error is commonly caused by a user accessing something he or she may not have rights to access, this error can also be caused by a hardware error. If you are attempting to access a hardware device on your computer (not a network) and are receiving this error, it is possible you may have a problem with that device. We recommend you review the support page in our hardware database for additional help or information with the hardware device.