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 KtRGU, and welcome to Vista Forums.

What is the name and full path of the file that you are trying to delete? What firewall program are you trying to install?

Have you already tried right clicking on the firewall program's setup file and clicking Run as administrator to see if that may help?

 

[ktRGU]

The problem arose when I went to update my zonealarm firewall. This happened to me the previous time I tried to update also but all it took was deleting the programme and reinstalling the firewall which worked fine. Although this time when I went to delete the programme after the update failed again it is now saying i do not have permission to delete it. I cannot reinstall my firewall programme as it keeps saying that it is already loaded on my computer.

I have tried taking over permission and also running as administrator. I am the only person with an account on this computer so I have all the power but yet it still will not let me delete. It is so frustrating!

The programme I want to delete is zone alarm security.

Hopefully you can help me.

Thanks

 

[Brink]

KtRGU,

If uninstalling it using the normal method through Programs and Features does not work, then I found this link that shows how to manually uninstall the Zone Alarm Security program.

Re: Vista Installation-True Vector Not Running - Installation, Uninstall and Upgrade - ZoneAlarm User Forum

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[ktRGU]

Thank you so much Shawn it worked!:D

This has been driving me crazy for days

Cheers!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome KtRGU. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out now.

 

[Janiece]

When I try to merge the take ownership file from my desktop I get the error message "cannot import takeownership.reg. Error accessing the registry" I'm trying to gain access to my administrator user account. Last night when I went to shut down my computer I saw an exclamation point near the shut off button that said updates to download then puter would shut down. well I clicked on that and this morning (whatever the update was) I cant get into my user account. I get the user profile service failed logon- user profile cannot be loaded. So I tried a system restore to like 5 days before the update. Still can't get in. Now I'm doing the reboot in safe mode and change the files part but it wont allow me to change any of the s-1-5 files. Soo now I'm trying to get the take ownership application but it wont work for me properly either. Gosh it's so much work so ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Hello Janiece, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yeah, you will not be able to do this while logged in to only a Standard user account. It will need to be done in a administrator account instead.

You might see if you can do a System Restore at boot using a restore point dated before this happened to see if it can fix it for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Janiece]

Well I tried restoring to 2 mos. before the upgrade (when I could log in to my user acct) and it still wont allow me to log in. Same error that my profile cant be loaded. Since I'm using my guest acct. I wont be able to try changing the s-1-5 file ext. and values or gain control to the files? Is there anything I can do? I cant bear to do a factory restore setting (I didn't back up anything) please help. and thanx for your time.

 

[Brink]

Janiece,

You might see if you can do step 2 in STEP ONE of the tutorial below to then try and fix the account using the built-in Administrator account.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/1...-failed-logon-user-profile-cannot-loaded.html

 

[Janiece]

Thanx so much Shawn, it worked!:D Now time to back up (just in case):eek:

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Janiece. I'm happy to hear it.

 

[R3SiD3NTEViL]

Hi, I have a quick question.. I kinda clicked "Take Ownership" on my Windows folder C:/Windows well my question is.. did I just do something horrible foolish? like will that affect my computer in a bad way somehow? Im slightly worried now.. lol..

I was wondering, if that dint do anything bad for my computer or system what would happen if I went and click "take ownership" on like every main folder on my laptop?

IF what i did was really bad or harmful to my computer, is there a way to undo what i did?

 

[Brink]

Hello R3SiD3NTEViL, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You may not have any issues, but if you do, then you can change it back to the default owner TrustedInstaller for the C:\Windows folder.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[R3SiD3NTEViL]

Hello R3SiD3NTEViL, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You may not have any issues, but if you do, then you can change it back to the default owner TrustedInstaller for the C:\Windows folder.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks for the fast reply :D so... I can go around and set some main windows folders with "take ownership" with also no problems?

 

[Brink]

I would not recommend it for security reasons alone, little mind that it can cause permission issues if done with some folders. Best not to unless you needed to make a change, then change the owner back to the default one afterwards.

 

[R3SiD3NTEViL]

I would not recommend it for security reasons alone, little mind that it can cause permission issues if done with some folders. Best not to unless you needed to make a change, then change the owner back to the default one afterwards.

I was thinking it might be bad to do for security reasons but I wanted a second option :D thanks again for your help

 

[Brink]

You're welcome R3SiD3NTEViL.

 

[bartholomew14]

Hmm. This is starting to annoy me, i am trying to replace the "browseui.dll" file in the system32 folder with another one so i can have a more customized theme for vista, but for some reason ot still wont let me do this. I have full control of the file, and even the whole folder that its in, but I cannot move it, delete it, or replace it and I have been trying to for a couple of hours. It's starting to get on my nerves. Also, I have to do the same thing to the "explorer" file in the Windows folder, but the same thing just happens, and I have tried everything. So if anyoe could help me it would be appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Hello Bartholomew, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Can you rename it to something like browseui.dll.bak instead, then copy the replacement there?

 

[bartholomew14]

Yes, that worked. I didnt think about making it a backup file, thank you