Context Menu - Take Ownership

How to Add Take Ownership to the Context Menu in Vista​

   Information

This will add Take Ownership to the Context (right click) menu for all folders, files, and drives in Vista and Windows 7.

Application files, (EX: EXE, CMD, MSI) will still have Run as administrator instead of Take Ownership in the context menu.

When you use take ownership on a folder, it will take ownership of all the files and subfolders inside the folder to.

   Tip

• To manually take ownership of items in Vista, see: How to Take Ownership of a Item in Vista
• To restore TrustedInstaller as the owner for a protected system resource, see: How to Restore TrustedInstaller as Owner of a File in Vista

   Warning

This Take Ownership context menu item needs to be used while logged on to an administrator account for it work.

EXAMPLE: Before and After Context Menus

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STEP ONE

Add or Remove Take Ownership

1. To Add Take Ownership​

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A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.​

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Add_Take_Ownership.reg​

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B) Go to step 3.​

2. To Remove Take Ownership​

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A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.​

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Remove_Take_Ownership.reg​

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3. Click on Save, and save the .reg file to the Desktop.​

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4. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.​

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5. Click on Run, Continue (UAC-Vista) or Yes (UAC-Windows 7), Yes, and OK when prompted.​

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6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.​

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   Tip

After you have taking ownership of the file, you may still need to "Allow" your user account "Full Control" of the file before you will have full permission to access it. See steps 11 to 22 in the tutorial below for how.

   Tip

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Take Ownership of file - Vista Forums​

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STEP TWO

How to Use Take Ownership

1. Right click on a folder, file, or drive.​

NOTE: When you use Take Ownership on a folder, it will take ownership of all the files and subfolders within that folder to.​

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   Warning

Do not take ownership of the drive that you have Windows installed on. If you do, you will end up having to reinstall Windows.

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2. Click on Take Ownership. (See Example at top)​

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3. Click on Continue in the UAC prompt.​

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4. You will see a command window pop-up and then go away when it's finished. (See example screenshot below)​

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5. The folder or file has been taken ownership of.​

NOTE:​

A) You can verify from METHOD TWO step 7 here: How to Take Ownership of a Item in Vista​

B) It will have your user name listed as the owner.​

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   Tip

After you have taking ownership of the file, you may still need to "Allow" your user account "Full Control" of the file before you will have full permission to access it. See steps 11 to 22 in the tutorial below for how.

   Tip

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Take Ownership of file - Vista Forums​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Expand the Context (Shortcuts) Menu in Vista
• How to Customize the Context Menu for the Start Menu in Vista
• How to Customize the Send To Context Menu in Vista
• How to Customize the Recycle Bin Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add Encrypt and Decrypt to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add and Remove a New Menu Item in Vista
• How to Add COPY TO FOLDER and MOVE TO FOLDER to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Take Ownership of a Item in Vista
• How to Restore the Search Context Menu Item after Installing the Vista SP1
• How to Add Flip 3D to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore or Remove New from the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore or Remove the Security Tab in Vista
• How to Remove or Show Drives in the Vista and Windows 7 "Send To" Context Menu
• How to Add View and Print File Directory to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add or Remove Copy as Path from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add or Remove Send To from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add or Remove Turn Aero On or Off from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add System Properties to Computer Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore TrustedInstaller as Owner of a File in Vista
• How to Restore or Remove "Restore Previous Versions" from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add Empty Folder and Subfolders to the Vista Context Menu

 

[Brink]

Hello BleepingCrazy,

I will have to look into that, but I do not think that there is.

 

[BleepingCrazy]

thanks as always shawn!

 

[Clive60]

Hi Shawn. Great and easy-to-follow advice! Thanks.
Reason I needed to take ownership of a file was that a downloaded file came
with Trojan.Brisv.Alinf virus which Norton cannot handle.
There is a manual fix which I cannot follow - my screens don't match that which
Norton suggests - can you help?

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Clive, and welcome to Vista Forums.

For the other part with Norton, could you post that in a new thread in the forum instead to keep this thread on topic, then send me a PM with a link to that post. I'll be happy to see what I can do to help with it. Be sure to include as many details as possible about the problem with screenshots if needed.

Shawn

 

[rave_col]

I had trouble backing up some files (pictures especifically) i had copied from my old computer to my new computer and when i tried to backup the files or copy them to an external usb it would give me the "could not find the item" error. after i took ownership using the registry edit above everything worked perfectly....thanks a lot!!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Rave, and welcome to Vista Forums. I'm happy to hear that you got them sorted.

Shawn

 

[shibu1981]

Dear Admin,
I used Step 1 to Take Ownership of a file and now I want to revert it back to its original state. Can u please tell me how to do it.

Thanks
Shibu

 

[Brink]

Hello Shibu, and welcome to Vista Forums.

It depends on what you did Take Ownership of for what the owner was by default. What was the full path of the file, folder, or drive? I'll look it up for you.

Shawn

 

[shibu1981]

Hello Shibu, and welcome to Vista Forums.

It depends on what you did Take Ownership of for what the owner was by default. What was the full path of the file, folder, or drive? I'll look it up for you.

Shawn

Sorry Admin after restarting the computer it's OK.

The folder that Took Ownership was "C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data". Thanks for ur support.

Thanks
Shibu

 

[Brink]

Shibu, I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[Powell]

Thanks for the info Shawn. Everything worked as you said except for the final step. I still cannot delete Roxio Drag to Disk and Roxio from my program files list in Windows Explorer. It is nor really affecting my computer performance but I hate Roxio so much I just want every trace of it gone. I've searched every nook and cranny of my file sysytems and erased this insidious piece of trash from them all except for this one place. I will move on to the manual method and give it a try.
At any rate, thanks for the advise. I am sure it will work for most problems of this type.
Best regards
Powell Lucas

 

[Brink]

Hello Powell,

Did you try to uninstall Roxio from Programs and Features in the Control Panel first?

If so, then you might see if the program Revo Uninstaller may be able to uninstall Roxio for you, or try Unlocker to see if it will allow you to manually delete those files with instead.

 

[Powell]

Hello Brink:

Thanks for the info. I'll certainly give it a try. I've tried to uninstall this last fragment using the control panel (it's not even listed there), I've dumped everything from the Windows Explorer program data files, I've tried Windows Install Cleanup (it's not listed there either), I've even gone through Search and dumped any reference to Roxio from the index. This also applies, in all cases, to anything referring to Sonic Solutions. This thing is as hard to get rid of as Nero and Norton.
Like I said, it doesn't interfere (as far as I know) with the way my computer functions, but it's just like a burr under my saddle. I guess I'm kinda paranoid about this, but anything that shows up anywhere on my computer that I didn't specifically ask for or that I have deleted, I consider a virus. I had a war with Dell over this and finally convinced their legal department that I had a case.
Once again, Many thanks and I'll give your suggestion a try.
Best Regards
Powell Lucas

 

[Brink]

Powell,

You might also do a search in the registry for Roxio, and delete any results it finds for it as well. Hopefully that will help get rid of it more.

 

[Powell]

Brink:

Thanks again for your suggestions. I just got in from work and I will give them a try a bit later on. I'll let you know if I have any success.
Best regards
Powell

 

[Powell]

Hello Again Brink:

Hey, my friend it is finally gone. my first crack at running the Revo Uninstaller didn't get rid of it, but after going into the registry and deleting every file I could find for both Roxio and Sonic and then running Revo again, it vanished. Now I just have to get rid of all the Apple junk hanging around in the registry.
Your assistance is very much appreciated. I'm certainly glad there are folks like you out there who know enough about Vista to help out people like me.
Best Regards
Powell

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Powel. I'm happy to hear that it's now gone for you. I hope you get rid of the junk as well.

 

[sparks559]

Thank you works GReAT :D

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Sparks.

 

[ktRGU]

Hi,

I tried all of the things that have been described above and I am still getting the message up saying that I do not have permission to delete this file. I cannot get my firewall to install properly without this file being deleted.

Any more suggestions I could try?