How To: Take Ownership Of A Folder/File In Windows 7
Posted February 18, 2009 – 6:11 am in: Windows 7, Windows 7 GuidesTaking ownership of a file is very essential when you want to replace or edit system folders or files. Though there are many ways to take ownership of files, running a simple registry file is the easiest one.
In this guide I will be focusing on the easiest method using which you can take ownership of files in Windows 7 easily.
In this method, we will merge a registry file with Windows Registry to get an option named “Take Ownership” in the context menu (Right-click menu). This is the simplest and quick method.
1. Download the Ownership.zip file from here.
2. Extract the RAR file to the Desktop or any folder to get a file named “Ownership.reg”. Note that if you want to see the extension “.reg” you need to enable it in “Folder Options” but it’s not necessary.
3. Right-click on Ownership.reg file and select Merge option.
4. Click “Yes” for the User Account Prompt (UAC) and then again click “Yes” for the Registry Editor pop up and then click “OK” when you get the successful message.
5. Now, you will see a new option named Take Ownership when you right-click on a file or folder.
6. Right-click on folder/file for which you want to take ownership and select Take Ownership option to take ownership of the file or folder.
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29 Comments
I have the following error message using Windows 7 to open an mp3 in windows media player:
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permission to access the item
Will downloading this feature help?
Link to the file is dead
@Jahglory
Thanks for pointing the dead link. I have fixed it.
Link to file is dead again..
Can’t you place content of that file as plain text?
And don’t use rar, please, it is proprietary format, use zip, tar.gz, bz2, lzma, 7zip instead.
Darkness,
Sure, will do it.
Wow..this was awesome! You rock man..
I was sick of doing it all manually!
Thanks a lot!
hello~
it was excelent.. it works.. thanks
What happens if I don’t see the “Take Ownership” option?
Hey how can i remove this?
hi ……… thanks for giving such easiest method…..thanks a lot..i have done this within 15 secs.
Where is the merge option? I can not find it anywhere? ):
This doesn’t work. It replaces “SYSTEM” with another name and you STILL can’t delete or rename the file. (Win 7)
Ya, how do I undo this?
How do I undo this? How can I remove this?
lifesaver, man. you don’t even know how much…
you are the best, congrat…
It did not work for me either, under Windows 7 Enterprise. I still get the message, that I need permission to copy and replace the file I am trying to copy.
Hey, very nice program. About a year back most of my files were taken ahold by a user called “TrustedInstaller” never heard of that person, or anything at all. Got ‘Em all back now i think. Let’s just hope it works.
Is there a way to do this for entire drives? As it’s taking a fairly long time to do each main folder manually
good. but I use safehouse explorer to secure my docouments from public. Safehouse want to take ownership in windows 7. any idea about drive ownership? If yes please email. i ll be happy.
Still having problems copying a .dll into a folder. I have tried installing and running the right click shortcut, but even though it seems to run smoothly in the popup .cmd windows, the folder is STILL marked as read.only.
Thoughts?
worked like a charm. thanks for the
Thanks !
thx a lot, dude !! this saved my life..
fantastic…….works great……
Can you please give a registry file with which we can reverse this at any time? I’ve heard that there is such a file. Thank you
For some reason it does not work for me.I running this on vista home edition and trying to rename a file in system32 folder. Please help.
no man its not working for me
Cheers 2 ya M8 worked bloody G8 now I don,t have 2 fool with windows media player
Cool mate.. and easy way indeed.. it would be cool if i could knew where can i change my registry my self.. well its cool even though ,i will figure it out.. thanks alot mate..