Take Ownership Shortcut

Add "Take Ownership" to Context Menu of Files, Folders, and Drives in Windows​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to add Take Ownership to the context menu of all files, folders, and drives for all users in Windows.

This will allow you to be able to instantly take ownership of a file, folder (and all contents), or drive (and all contents) by changing the owner to the current user and grant the Owner_Rights SID (current owner) full access permission.

You must be an administrator to be able to add, remove, and use the "Take Ownership" context menu.

   Note

Application files (ex: EXE, CMD, MSI) will continue to have Run as administrator instead of Take Ownership in their context menu.

---

When you right click or press and hold on a file, folder, or drive, and click/tap on Take Ownership, you may be prompted by UAC for permission to do so first.

If a user is logged in as an administrator, then the user would just click/tap on Yes to approve and take ownership. The owner of the file, folder, or drive would be changed to the current administrator user account. Permissions would be set to allow the Owner_Rights SID (current owner) full control of the file, folder, or drive.

If a user is logged in as a standard user, then the user would need to enter a selected administrator's password to approve and take ownership. The owner of the file, folder, or drive would be changed to the selected administrator account, and not the standard user. Permissions would be set to allow the Owner_Rights SID (current owner) full control of the file, folder, or drive.

---

The Take Ownership context menu will not be available when you right click on the C: drive, C:\Program Files folder, C:\Program Files (x86) folder, C:\ProgramData folder, C:\Users folder, and C:\Windows folder. This was done because taking ownership of these system folders can make Windows unstable since it would also take ownership of all the folder's content at the same time.

You will still be able to use the Take Ownership context menu of files inside the folder locations above.

If you would like to have a custom location(s) of your own to not have the context menu, then please feel free to post a request in this tutorial thread. I'll be happy to post back with a custom .reg file for it.

   Warning

This context menu will only work with English Windows installations.

If you have a different language, then please post a reply with what language you have instead. I'll be happy to post back a translated version for you.

EXAMPLE: Take Ownership in Context Menu






Here's How:

1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for what you would like to do.


2. To Add "Take Ownership" to Context Menu

   Note

Application files (ex: EXE, CMD, MSI) will still have Run as administrator instead of Take Ownership in the context menu when you use this step.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.

Add_Take_Ownership_to_context_menu


Download


3. To Add "Take Ownership" with Pause to Context Menu

   Note

This option pauses the command when you use the "Take Ownership" context menu to be able to see the command results. This can be handy to verify setting ownership and permissions was successful or not.

Application files (ex: EXE, CMD, MSI) will still have Run as administrator instead of Take Ownership in the context menu when you use this step.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.

Add_Take_Ownership_with_Pause_to_context_menu.reg


Download


4. To Remove "Take Ownership" from Context Menu

   Note

This is the default setting, and will also restore the default Run as administrator for .exe files.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.

Remove_Take_Ownership_from_context_menu.reg


Download


5. Save the .reg file to your Desktop.

6. Double click on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

7. If prompted, click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.



That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Add or Remove the Security Tab from Properties in Windows 7
• How to Restore TrustedInstaller as Owner of a File in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Allow or Deny Permissions to Users and Groups
• How to Add or Remove Users and Groups from "User Rights Assignment"
• How to Allow or Prevent Users and Groups to Take Ownership
• How to Add Reset Permissions to Context Menu in Windows
• Enable or Disable Inherited Permissions for Files and Folders in Windows

Related Windows 10 Tutorials

---

• How to Add View Owner to Context Menu in Windows
• Change Permissions of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key for Users and Groups in Windows 10
• How to Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Windows 10
• How to Add Advanced security to context menu in Windows 8 and Windows 10
• How to Add a File Attributes context menu in Windows 10
• How to Remove Security tab from Drives, Files, and Folders Properties in Windows 10
• How to Add Reset Permissions to Context Menu in Windows
• Enable or Disable Inherited Permissions for Files and Folders in Windows
• How to Add Inherited Permissions Context Menu in Windows
• How to Add List Permissions Context Menu in Windows
• How to Backup and Restore Permissions of Files, Folders, or Drives in Windows 10
• How to Add Change Owner to Context Menu in Windows 10

 

[dennis11643]

Thanks SO much for this....

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Dennis, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[sum1]

Take ownership runs when i want to run belarc advisor

Hey,

I applied those registry entries a while ago, and I find them very useful, so thanks for that.
The only thing is, I've got a few lil problems since I use Take Ownership, i.e. when I try to run a program, Take Ownership runs instead. That happens with Belarc Advisor(i want to retrieve my windows key), and it happened with two other programs too, but I can't remember which ones. When I try to run Belarc Advisor, take wonership takes ownership of belarcadvisor.exe, after that, nothing happens.
I cannot think of any cause for this phenomenon. Any experience or advice on this?
Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello sum1, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounds like it's an issue with the "Run as administrator" for .exe files. The tutorial has been updated since the last time you used it. Please download and merge the newer .reg file in step 2 or 3 (for what you want) to update it, and see how it does now.

 

[sum1]

Hello sum1, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounds like it's an issue with the "Run as administrator" for .exe files. The tutorial has been updated since the last time you used it. Please download and merge the newer .reg file in step 2 or 3 (for what you want) to update it, and see how it does now.

Excellent, that did the trick. I didn't knew you updated it, belarc advisor works fine now.
Thanks!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[looked]

Thank you so so much!
But I don't understand why Microsoft thought that a system administrator on a Windows 7 x64 Ultimate needed special permission to have access and delete files!
I usually need to empty the C drive's temp folder before switching off the computer and had limitations on my own system!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome looked. Windows is protective of it's system files by default to help prevent unwanted access or changes to them. If you did need access or to make changes, then you would usually need to have to take ownership first.

It's basically a safety and security feature.

 

[Legbiter]

Was working/ not now:
So having used this magic script for over a year (thank you), suddenly it no longer works.

Acts like it's working:
I appears to work as it always did, Cmd opens, text scrolls past as the operation is applied to all of the files.

Makes no changes:
But the "Read Only" box remains checked so my batch processing programs won't work until I manually remove the Read Only via Windows Properties.

Tried these fixes:
Turned off security programs (yes whilst off line)

Uninstalled/ rebooted/ reinstalled/ rebooted Take Ownership

Downloaded fresh copy of Take Ownership and repeated above.

Still not working at all. Ideas?

 

[Brink]

Hello LegBiter,

You would need to remove the read-only attribute before it will work.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/63741-read-only-file-folder-attribute.html

If you like, using the context menu below can make it faster to remove read-only if you have many to do.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/204739-file-folder-add-set-unset-read-only-context-menu.html

Hope this helps.

 

[Legbiter]

Thanks Brink
I guess that means that the times I've used this to remove Read Only were times that it was Faux Read Only - where Win 7 has the box solid blue, not checked or blank.
That Default setting has to be the stupidest move yet.

You have a check box,
- checked means Yes,
- unchecked means No
So Windows adds a third option, filled like it's Yes but not technically Ticked so it's actually No .
That has to be a valid argument for Euthanasia, surely

 

[Brink]

Take ownership will not clear read-only.

Were you able to clear read-only for them using the other tutorials I linked, and sort this?

 

[Legbiter]

Yep Thanks, that is all working well. .

 

[Brink]

Great news.

 

[Fudd456]

Thank you Brink-Shawn! You're a life-saver. I was bracing to clear a day for a re-installation from this dent some malware left in my OS. You saved me a whole day of needless work.

Many thanks and be blessed.

♥



Edit: I was being plagued for the last two days by odd little problems out of nowhere that weren't making any sense. It was only when I tried to save an *.ini file that I edit nearly every day that I realized something was seriously wrong even after the malware was eliminated.

It was slowly driving me nuts and I told someone my computer was trying to 'gaslight' me again.

My media hotkeys wouldn't work in the same environment they usually did. My flash player in one of my browsers refused to work. My SysInternal Process Explorer was showing me the User account view. A bunch of little bitty things that were driving me mad with no explanation.

It was the *ini file edit showing 'access denied' that finally drove me to the web for a solution.

You know how that goes: You read 15 different forum threads around the web and get 2 page explanations on 20 things that just lead farther and farther from the problem and end up getting you lost on obscure details about things that you can tell 80% are things you already thought of or know wont help.

So I am happily making this edit to add that your little registry edit fixed all my problems instantly after I rebooted with it (and re-affirmed ownership, of course). I was getting seriously worried and began thinking of allllllll the stuff one has to do to completely reinstall and configure a machine, and dreading it.

Your fixed saved me a ton of time and fixed the issues I didn't even know were related that were driving me bonkers for two days.

I am very grateful. Many, many thanks again. ♥

 

[Galane]

If you're the only user on your PC and you keep having problems with Windows locking you to read only on various files and folders even though you are logged in with an account that has administrator rights - I found what looks like an easy to use and permanent fix.

Search for jsware fixnt6.exe I aimed it at the root of each of my hard drives and turned it loose to give all permissions to all users. After it was done, Windows 7 popped up that the recycle bin was corrupted and needed emptied. I agreed to that and all has been fine since. Looks like Windows also adjusts permissions back to what they are supposed to be on system files after running fixnt6.exe

It can be set to work on a single file or on a folder, including or excluding subfolders. I'd tried several Registry edits and other utilities but kept having Windows lock me out of things that should not have been locked.

No more locking me out of files and folders *I* created. No more of that stupid blocking me from creating *new* files in a folder and blocking me from saving changes to files in the same folder but not blocking *save as* to a new file in the same folder.

 

[Brink]

Hello Fudd456,

I'm happy to hear that it was able to help.

 

[whyMSwhy]

Thanks a million

Dude, this is awesome! In seconds, it has helped resolved an issue I've been working on for weeks.

 

[Brink]

 

[ezwin]

Hi, I am admin, installed the right hand Ownership menu line and still can not remove 100ds of Baidu AV files which
1) were left over after deinstallation with Revo free [level max.] (Baidu window confirmed deinstallation). Folder 3.0.0.4605.
2) I am still requested to have admin rights, there is no other user. ACCESS DENIED.
3) The supposedly deinstalled Baidu is still checking files when I mark one, or plug-in a memory stick.
I want to install a different AV, but fear the conflict with the existing "deinstalled" Baidu AV.
I really would like the computer back online, with a crippled AV I hesitate.
Thanks for more sugg's.