Take Ownership Shortcut

One more annoying thing with Windows 7. If you launch a program as an administrator, you, the user who launched that program, may not have full access rights to files it creates even if you have administrator rights.

One example, the game Kerbal Space Program creates a log file. In some cases Windows will block the game from being able to write to its own files and folders - even when it's not installed in Program Files. Launch it as an administrator and the user with admin rights is blocked from having write access to the game's log and save files.

But make a copy of them and delete the old file and you have full access until the game is run again as an administrator, upon which Windows 7 will put a write access block on the files. If the game is run again not as an administrator, then it's blocked from some of its own files unless the user makes copies and deletes the originals.

That's not security, that's just being pointlessly annoying. A secure file is one that only the user that created it can access when logged in. If anyone else can have full access to a file simply by making a copy, then there is no point at all to doing a half-measure access block. It's just like having a locked vault door with the combination code posted next to it.

Is there a way to turn that "feature" off?

Thank you so much for this post. It was exactly what I was looking for!!!

I tried this in Windows 8.1 and it considerably slowed down the file manager. I would open it and after 5 seconds the green bar at the top would start filling up, seemingly never to stop. Also right-clicking on a file or expand/collapsing folders would take ages. As I had added other stuff it took me a while to find the culprit. Now I have removed it and it and the File Manager is OK.

I thought removing Take Ownership solved the problem, but in fact the slowness has reappeared. So I guess I was casting accusations wrongly

I added the Take Ownership reg, but it removed the Run as Administrator option from files as well including .EXEs. It also didn't allow me to edit or copy the Autorun.inf file that I ran Take Ownership on.

Support would be appreciated.
Thanks

In my case one of my disks was KO, the one I used for backups (so I never opened it). Every time I tried to open the File Explorer or clicked open/close a folder on the other disks, it would spend seconds trying to access that disk. Also a mutted noise I thought came from someone with a hammer on another floor was in fact the disk banging in its lodgings. After removal, the file manager was working perfectly.

I have only one account on my PC, and it is an Administrator account. The Read-only attributes on files in my C:/Users/Tony folder wouldn't change, so I used the Take Ownership shortcut to give me Administrator privileges over them (or so I thought).

Now I cannot access any of the files in the C:/Users/Tony folder! Yes - Duh!! I've tried System Restore to an earlier date, but this hasn't worked.

Is there a way to effectively reverse taking ownership?

Any help would be very gratefully received!

Tony