How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista
In Windows Vista, occasionally you may need to take ownership of certain files that not belong to you, and then assign read, write, modify, traverse, or full control permissions to yourself. If you’re the administrator for the Vista system, then you can easily do it by following these steps.
- In Windows Explorer window, locate the files or folders that you want to take ownership and grant access permissions.
- Right click on the file or directory.
- Click on “Properties” on the right click menu.
- Click on “Security” tab.
- Click on “Advanced” button at the bottom.
- In Advanced Security Settings dialog window, click on “Owner” tab.
- Here you will be able to see current owner (i.e. TrustedInstaller).
- To take ownership of the object, click on the Edit button. Give permission to UAC. Then highlight the user name in the “Change owner to” box that you want to assign as the owner for the object. Click “OK” to finish the process.
- Back in Advanced Security Settings window, you will see the current owner has changed to the user you just selected.
- Click “OK” button to exit this window.
- Click “OK” again to exit completely from the Properties window.
- Repeat step 1 to 4 to open the object’s Properties window again.
- Back in object’s Properties window, click on Edit button, and confirm the UAC elevation request.
- Highlight the Administrators in the “Group or user names” box. If the user ID or group that you want to manage the permissions for the object doesn’t exist, click on “Add” button, and type in the user name or group name desired into the “Enter object names to select” box, and finish off by clicking on “OK”.
- In the Permissions for Administrators box below (or any other user name or group name you chose), click on “Full Control” under the “Allow” column to assign full access rights control permissions to Administrators group.
- Click “OK” twice when done.
You can do whatever you like to the files or directories processed as above.
It’s possible to take ownership and grant full control permissions from command line. Or you can also prepare a Windows shell batch script that easily perform the task by typing simple command.
This guide has been reposted to Tip and Trick.
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Entries (RSS)
November 18th, 2009 16:17
[...] on to Vista as administrator, then take ownership and has full control permissions for user32.dll.mui located in C:WindowsSystem32en-US folder. For easier method to perform this [...]
October 24th, 2009 17:15
That’s soo sick man… Thank you very much
September 1st, 2009 21:30
thank you .. it was fully helpfull ..
July 6th, 2009 00:19
Thank you very much!
It worked, and now I can see the weather around here!
January 16th, 2009 05:20
Fantastic!!
Needed to rename a file in …system32/drivers but the wiley Vista OS prevented my every attempt (using GUI interfaces) to gain ownership, set permissions, etc. etc.
Within 30 seconds with this bit of old fashioned command line script, the OS War was over! I was back in control.
URI copied from above…
{http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/25/easier-way-to-take-ownership-and-grant-access-files-or-directories-in-vista/}
November 6th, 2008 22:45
[...] Windows Vista, you might need to take the permissions of the folder by different instructions. How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista After you have applied the changes, reboot the computer and try running iTunes again. Does it work [...]
August 19th, 2008 10:41
If after completing all of the above and the file continues to not grant permission, like for me, try this, for some crazy reason after trying everything this worked to change the file from read only (make sure to disable uac and you have full control): when you box is checked to read only, leave it and click hidden, the file will dissapear but you can still access it in menu, then reclick on properties, click on read only and hidden files, apply, and ok. After hours of tooling with fisher price fp3 player song list i finally was able to see the files.
July 14th, 2008 12:07
[...] Tip : How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista [...]
March 22nd, 2008 01:55
[...] permissions when log on to full Vista desktop (normal mode or safe mode). Check out the guide to take ownership and grant read and write permissions to files and folders in Vista, or make use of the script to add a right click menu option to take control of files and folders [...]
March 13th, 2008 18:06
Quickest way to gain full rights as admin:
> CONTROL PANEL
> > USER ACCOUNT
> > > TURN USER ACCOUNT CONTROL ON OFF
> > > > DISABLE UAC
> > > > > RESTART OS
You now have full access to do whatever you want. Although you may be more vulnerable
to spyware etc..
laters
zep
December 13th, 2007 05:21
[...] and full permission control of user32.dll.mui the C:WindowsSystem32en-US folder (guide on taking ownership and control in Vista or add Take Ownership to right click menu). Finally, (backup first) replace the user32.dll.mui file [...]
November 3rd, 2007 12:43
[...] permissions on important files and folders. Taking ownership of files and/or folders in Vista is cumbersome process. There is take ownership and grant access command line script to speed up the process, however, [...]
September 10th, 2007 20:46
woW!! had some troubles to gran full access but worked at last!
May 31st, 2007 11:51
[...] you having problem to modify the BootMgr due to permission error, try to take ownership and grant full control permissions to yourself. To see BootMgr file which is hidden by default, click on “Organize” in [...]