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.
Update: Related articles have been updated and consolidated as How to Take Ownership and Gain Full Control Permissions in Windows
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when i try to copy and replace “exeplorerframe.dll”from system 32 it says “the action can’t be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program”. so what can i do now?
i have even taken full permission for this.
Still works- just did it! Thanks
Hi there. Not exactly sure who runs this board, but hope you can help
This past semester I took a Web design course from my local community college and as part of the course we were instructed to install trial versions of Adobe Flash, Photoshop & Dreamweaver. I am now unable to uninstall these trial softwares and have been reading other boards of nightmares other’s who have downloaded these trials are having with their computers. One person even wiped her hard drive clean and re-installed everything.
Anyway, After reading this message board I thought I could fix my problem by taking ownership of the files. But I’m either not doing it correctly OR it is somehow it is being hijacked by Adobe. I try to change the owner from “Owner Creator” “special permission” to “Administrator-Full Control” and when I go back in it has reset back to “Owner Creator” ownership. SO not sure what’s going on here. I CAN’T uninstall through Add/Remove. And these programs don’t even show up in the WMIC files
OMG! I thought it was a fake and it wasn't thanks for saving my dream ^-^
Hi there, my external hard drive was taken over by a virus, which is now gone. But I transferred all my files to it the other day when I was making a clean copy of vista on my computer. Anyway now, just those folders I copied over will not let me use any files inside at all, or see my pictures. I have changed the permissions on the folders, but that does not work on every file inside. I have hundreds of files and pictures, and it seems I have to do them one by one. Please help. Is there anything else I can do?
[...] accidental deletion or change to system files, it makes job of technical users harder though. Manually take ownership and grant full control permissions of the files (including executables) and folders to administrators or other users or groups are messy multiple [...]
how do I set it back to trusted installer :
Thank you so much for explaining my issue and providing a file to fix my problem. This was the batch file that saved me a lot of hassle of retriving permissions from each and every file in my external drive. One thing which hindered me, was editing the file to suit my needs, but once i understood that i have to change 'administrators' with my username, i was able to grant permissions to all my files and access them again properly.
Cheers!
I tried this and it worked just great. Thanks!
thanks, it worked perfectly. im using vista and had to get premission to change the file, so if you vista dont forget to get full premission so u can change the file ;D
Just solved my problem for Windows 7 as well – not sure how the permissions got messed up, but this was the solution – thank you – your advice is still helping!
Thank you very much!
It worked, and now I can see the weather around here!
nice, nice…..
Yeah! Thank you!
Was able to compress for backup and then delete an annoying folder on an external drive that caused errors in Goodsync:
3e9960eea350cc4c71b878e976ec67
Sub folder amd64
Sub folder i386 which the .ini in the folders says "Microsoft system driver files for XPSDrv print drivers."
I'm not sure where they came from or if they have a function, hopefully not. But I'm glad I was able to take control of them.
Thanks again,
PO
It was a little messy but finally I could manage to do the changes. Ty!!
I did all of this in Windows 7. Every setting indicates I have full control. I still can't delete that folder. The error message is 'Could not find this item'. Windows.old shows up in windows explorer but windows tells me it isn't there.
[...] system32 folder: shell32.dll/explorerframe.dll] If you are unsure how to do it, read this tutorial: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/0…windows-vista/ Then you should rename the original files to something different: e.g. explorer.exe to [...]
Seriously, Thank You.
Well, I need a bit of help here. I used these method to rename some system files like explorer.exe, explorerframe.dll and shell32.dll in order to use custom files for visual styles. However, after renaming explorerframe, I find myself unable to move the new files into the folder (it asks me for several permissions and after I accept all, it shows the moving file animation, but nothing get actually copied! Even worse, I cannot rename back the old files. Right now my computer has no explorer.exe or shell32.dll files, and though working, I do not dare turn the PC off! Can anyone help me?!
Thank you thank thank you thank you thank you thank you…etc etc
it's WORK THX MAN
I followed these instructions successfully, i needed to swap out system.dll with a patched copy. Well, it did not do what was promised and now i cant delete the patched copy. i took ownershiop of it and everything. i can rename it, but i cannot delete it (the orig has been replaced and the patched copy has been renemed to system32.dll.old) it seems to have made up its own owner called "account unknown (s-1-5-21-3003447509…and the numbers go on and on" rofl, so now what do i do??
[...] 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 [...]
That's soo sick man… Thank you very much
thank you .. it was fully helpfull ..
Thank you very much!
It worked, and now I can see the weather around here!
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/}
[...] 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 [...]
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.
[...] Tip : How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista [...]
[...] 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 [...]
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
[...] 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 [...]
[...] 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, [...]
woW!! had some troubles to gran full access but worked at last!
[...] 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 [...]