12/21/2020 Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Windows 10 | Tutorials

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Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Windows 10

How to Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Windows 10
Published by Shawn Brink Category: Security System
09 Nov 2020

How to Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key  

in Windows 10

An owner is assigned to an object when that object is created. By default, the owner is the creator of the object. No
matter what permissions are set on an object, the owner of the object can always change the permissions.

The owner of an object (ex: le, folder, drive, or registry key) has the right to allow or deny access to that resource.
Although members of the Administrators group and other authorized users also have the right to allow or deny access,
the owner has the authority to lock out non-administrator users, and then the only way to regain access to the resource is
for an administrator or a member of the Restore Operators group to take ownership of it. This makes the le or folder
owner important with respect to what permissions are allowed or denied for a given resource.

Ownership can be taken or transferred in several ways. The current owner of an object can transfer ownership to another
user or group. A member of the Administrators group can take ownership of an object or transfer ownership to another
user or group—even if administrators are locked out of the resource according to the permissions. Any user with the
"Take Ownership" permission on the object can take ownership, as can any member of the "Backup Operators" group (or
anyone else with the "Restore Files And Directories" user right, for that matter).

This tutorial will show you di erent ways to change the owner (take ownership) of a le, folder, drive, or registry key to
any user or group in Windows 10.

 You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to take ownership of an object.

 Do not change the owner of your Windows drive (ex: C: ). Doing so could result in Windows becoming very
unstable.

Contents
Option One: To Take Ownership of File, Folder, or Drive using Context Menu
Option Two: To Change Owner of File, Folder, or Drive using TAKEOWN Command
Option Three: To Change Owner of File, Folder, or Drive using ICACLS Command
Option Four: To Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Advanced Security Settings Dialog

OPTION ONE
To Take Ownership of File, Folder, or Drive using Context Menu

1 For how, see: How to Add 'Take Ownership' to Context Menu in Windows 10

OPTION TWO
To Change Owner of File, Folder, or Drive using TAKEOWN Command

 If you like, you could also type takeown /? in the elevated command prompt and press Enter to see a complete list
of available switches and options that you could use with the takeown commands below.

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1 Open an elevated command prompt, and do step 2, step 3, or step 4 below depending on what object you
would like to change owner of.

2. To Change Owner of File using TAKEOWN Command

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command you want below, press Enter, and go to step 5 below.

 (To change owner to currently logged on user)

takeown /F "full path of file with file extension"

OR

 (To change owner to Administrators group)

takeown /F "full path of file with file extension" /A

 Substitute full path of le with le extension with the actual full path of the le with it's le extension
that you want to take ownership of within quotes.

For example: takeown /F "C:\Windows\file.exe" /A

3. To Change Owner of All Files with same File Extension in Folder or Drive using TAKEOWN
Command

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command you want below, press Enter, and go to step 5 below.

 (To change owner to currently logged on user)

takeown /F "full path of folder or drive\*.file extension"

OR

 (To change owner to Administrators group)

takeown /F "full path of folder or drive\*.file extension" /A

 Substitute full path of folder or drive with the full path of the folder or drive letter, and substitute le
extension with the actual le extention that you want to take ownership of within quotes.

For example: takeown /F "C:\Windows\*.txt" /A

4. To Change Owner of Folder or Drive using TAKEOWN Command

 This command will take ownership of the folder or drive, and all les and subfolders in the folder or drive.

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command you want below, press Enter, and go to step 5 below.

 (To change owner to currently logged on user)

takeown /F "full path of folder or drive" /R /D Y

OR

 (To change owner to Administrators group)

takeown /F "full path of folder or drive" /A /R /D Y

 Substitute full path of folder or drive with the full path of the folder or drive letter that you want to take
ownership of within quotes.

For example:
takeown /F "F:" /A /R /D Y

takeown /F "F:\Folder" /A /R /D Y

5 When nished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.

6. You will now need to set permissions to allow you access to this le, folder, or drive.

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OPTION THREE
To Change Owner of File, Folder, or Drive using ICACLS Command

 You could also type icacls /? in the elevated command prompt and press Enter to see a complete list of availble
switches and options that you could use with the icacls commands below.

1 Open an elevated command prompt, and do step 2, step 3, step 4, step 5 below depending on what object you
would like to change owner of.

2. To Change Owner of File using ICACLS Command

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command you want below, press Enter, and go to step 6 below.

 (To change owner to any user)

icacls "full path of file with file extension" /setowner "user name" /T /C

OR

 (To change owner to Administrators group)

icacls "full path of file with file extension" /setowner "Administrators" /T /C

OR

 (To change owner to TrustedInstaller)

icacls "full path of file with file extension" /setowner "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" /T
/C

 Substitute full path of le with le extension with the actual full path of the le with it's le extension
that you want to take ownership of within quotes.

Substitute user name with the actual user name of the user account you want to set as owner within
quotes. For a Microsoft account, you would use the email address as the user name.

For example: icacls "C:\Windows\file.exe" /setowner "Administrators" /T /C

3. To Change Owner of All Files with same File Extension in Folder or Drive using ICACLS
Command

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command you want below, press Enter, and go to step 6 below.

 (To change owner to any user)

icacls "full path of folder or drive\*.file extension" /setowner "user name" /T /C

OR

 (To change owner to Administrators group)

icacls "full path of folder or drive\*.file extension" /setowner "Administrators" /T /C

OR

 (To change owner to TrustedInstaller)

icacls "full path of folder or drive\*.file extension" /setowner "NT
SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" /T /C

 Substitute full path of folder or drive with the full path of the folder or drive letter, and substitute le
extension with the actual le extension that you want to take ownership of within quotes.

Substitute user name with the actual user name of the user account you want to set as owner within
quotes. For a Microsoft account, you would use the email address as the user name.

For example: icacls "C:\Windows\*.txt" /setowner "Administrators" /T /C

4. To Change Owner of Folder or Drive and All Contents using ICACLS Command

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command you want below, press Enter, and go to step 6 below.

 (To change owner to any user)

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icacls "full path of folder or drive" /setowner "user name" /T /C

OR

 (To change owner to Administrators group)

icacls "full path of folder or drive" /setowner "Administrators" /T /C

OR

 (To change owner to TrustedInstaller)

icacls "full path of folder or drive" /setowner "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" /T /C

 Substitute full path of folder or drive with the full path of the folder or drive letter that you want to take
ownership of within quotes.

Substitute user name with the actual user name of the user account you want to set as owner within
quotes. For a Microsoft account, you would use the email address as the user name.

For example: icacls "C:\Windows\Folder" /setowner "Administrators" /T /C

5. To Change Owner of Only Folder or Drive using ICACLS Command

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command you want below, press Enter, and go to step 6 below.

 (To change owner to any user)

icacls "full path of folder or drive" /setowner "user name" /C

OR

 (To change owner to administrators group)

icacls "full path of folder or drive" /setowner "Administrators" /C

OR

 (To change owner to TrustedInstaller)

icacls "full path of folder or drive" /setowner "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" /C

 Substitute full path of folder or drive with the full path of the folder or drive letter that you want to take
ownership of within quotes.

Substitute user name with the actual user name of the user account you want to set as owner within
quotes. For a Microsoft account, you would use the email address as the user name.

For example: icacls "C:\Windows\Folder" /setowner "Administrators" /C

6 When nished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.

7 You will now need to set permissions to allow you access to this le, folder, or drive.

OPTION FOUR
To Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Advanced Security
Settings Dialog

1 Do step 2 or step 3 below depending on what object you would like to change owner of.

2. To Change Owner of File, Folder, or Drive in Advanced Settings

A) Right click or press and hold on the le, folder, or drive that you want to change owner of, click/tap on
Properties, and go to step 4 below.

OR

B) Select a le, folder, or open a drive that you want to change owner of, click/tap on the Share tab, click/tap

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on the Advanced security button in the ribbon, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)

3. To Change Owner of Registry Key in Advanced Settings

A) In the left pane of Registry Editor (regedit), right click or press and hold on the registry key that you want to
change owner of, click/tap on Permissions, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)

4 Click/tap on the Security tab, and click/tap on the Advanced button. (see screenshots below)

 If you see the left screenshot below, then it means that you have access to this item, and can change the
owner to any user or group you like.

If you see the right screenshot below, then it means that your user account does not have at least Read
permission for this object. Basically, no access rights. When you get to step 8 below, you will need to change
the owner to your user account name, and set permissions to allow you account full control at step 13 below.

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5 At the top and to the right of the current Owner, click/tap on the Change link. (see screenshots below)

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6 If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

7 Click/tap on the Advanced button. (see screenshot below)

 If you wanted to set the Administrators group as the owner, then type Administrators in the "Enter the object
name to select" box, click/tap on Check Names to verify, and go to step 9 below instead.

If you wanted to set TrustedInstaller as the owner, then type this below in the "Enter the object name to
select" box, click/tap on Check Names to verify, and go to step 9 below instead.

NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller

8 Click/tap on the Find Now button. At the bottom under the Name column, select a user name (ex: Shawn Brink)
or group (ex: Administrators) that you would like to change owner to, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

9 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

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10 If this is a le, then click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

11 If this is a folder, drive, or registry key, then you will also have the option to check the Replace owner of
subcontainers and objects box to also change the owner of the folder/drive contents or registry key subkeys as well
if you like. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

12 If prompted, click/tap on Yes. (see screenshot below)

13 You will now need to set permissions to allow you access to this le, folder, drive, or registry key.

That's it,

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