Take Ownership - Add to Context Menu in Windows 8

How to Add "Take Ownership" to Context Menu in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to add Take Ownership to the context menu of all files, folders, and drives for all users in Windows 8.

This will allow you to be able to instantly take ownership of a file, folder (and all contents), or drive (and all contents) by changing the owner to the current user and grant the Owner_Rights SID (current owner) full access permission.

You must be an administrator to be able to add, remove, and use the "Take Ownership" context menu.

   Note

Application files (ex: EXE, CMD, MSI) will continue to have Run as administrator instead of Take Ownership in their context menu.

When you right click or press and hold on a file, folder, or drive, and click/tap on Take Ownership, you may be prompted by UAC for permission to do so first.

If a user is signed in as an administrator, then the user would just click/tap on Yes to approve and take ownership. The owner of the file, folder, or drive would be changed to the current administrator user account. Permissions would be set to allow the Owner_Rights SID (current owner) full control of the file, folder, or drive.

If a user is signed in as a standard user, then the user would need to enter a selected administrator's password to approve and take ownership. The owner of the file, folder, or drive would be changed to the selected administrator account, and not the standard user. Permissions would be set to allow the Owner_Rights SID (current owner) full control of the file, folder, or drive.

The Take Ownership context menu will not be available when you right click on the C: drive, C:\Program Files folder, C:\Program Files (x86) folder, C:\ProgramData folder, C:\Users folder, and C:\Windows folder. This was done because taking ownership of these system folders can make Windows unstable since it would also take ownership of all the folder's content at the same time.

You will still be able to use the Take Ownership context menu of files inside the folder locations above.

If you would like to have a custom location(s) of your own to not have the context menu, then please feel free to post a request in this tutorial thread. I'll be happy to post back with a custom .reg file for it.

   Warning

This context menu will only work with English Windows installations.

If you have a different language, then please post a reply with what language you have instead. I'll be happy to post back a translated version for you.

EXAMPLE: Take Ownership in Context Menu




Here's How:

1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Add "Take Ownership" to Context Menu

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A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the top, middle, or bottom of context menu file below, and go to step 5 below.​

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Add_Take_Ownership_to_context_menu.reg​

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3. To Add "Take Ownership" with Pause to Context Menu

   Note

This option pauses the command when you use the "Take Ownership" context menu to be able to see the command results. This can be handy to verify setting ownership and permissions was successful or not.

Application files (ex: EXE, CMD, MSI) will still have Run as administrator instead of Take Ownership in the context menu when you use this step.

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A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the top, middle, or bottom of context menu file below, and go to step 5 below.​

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Add_Take_Ownership_with_Pause_to_context_menu.reg​

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4. To Remove "Take Ownership" from Context Menu

   Note

This is the default setting, and will also restore the default Run as administrator for .exe files.

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A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.​

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Remove_Take_Ownership_from_context_menu.reg​

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5. Save the .reg file to your Desktop.

6. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

7. If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Take Ownership of a File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Allow or Deny Access Permisions to Users and Groups in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Allow or Prevent Users and Groups to be able to Take Ownership
• How to Add Reset Permissions to Context Menu in Windows
• Enable or Disable Inherited Permissions for Files and Folders in Windows

 

[Bill2]

Anything different from the win7 reg?

 

[Brink]

Hello Bill,

Nope, it's the same one exactly.

 

[mhollan3]

This worked! My Windows.old is gone! Thank you.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome mhollan. In addition, you could also use the tutorial below to delete the Windows.old folder.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2527-windows-old-folder-delete-windows-8-a.html

 

[ecevit]

Thanks for the information.

 

[alpinekid61]

The program "Take Ownership" worked for me also. Now I have to learn the rest of Windowss 8. sure is different.

 

[spddemun]

Thanks for posting here, I found I still needed this with 8!

 

[nirmit14]

Thanks Brink for the file. I use to get permissions manually which I knew and had done it before. But this reg file will do that work quite easily

 

[Brink]

You're welcome. Glad it could it help.

 

[Softehard]

Dear colleague,

I found a problem, for example, if the folder is by permission only for the "SYSTEM" the TakeOwnership not work. I had to do the manual method is very time consuming, and the purpose is to make a TakeOwnership that gives complete control to the user "Everyone"?

Thanks and a hug.

Marcelo "Sushi"

 

[Brink]

Hello Marcelo, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Unfortunately, there's not anything that I know of that can be done for this.

 

[furyza]

Hi, Brink

this is "Take Ownership" in context menu in windows 8

can you help me? give me "Grant Admin Full control" in context menu in windows 8

thank you

 

[Brink]

Hello Furyza, and welcome to Eight Forums.

The "Take Ownership" context menu in this tutorial already does change the owner and grant administrators "full control".

 

[NewUserHere]

Worked! but the same as win7 take ownership! anyways Thanks! i thought it was different

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome NewUserHere.

Yep, the "Take Ownership" context menu is the same in W7 and W8.

It's only a bit different when you use the GUI in Windows 8 to manually take ownership instead.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...le-folder-drive-registry-key-windows-8-a.html

 

[Enigma]

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

So, why is it not possible to take ownership of executable-type files? I tried using this script awhile back to take ownership of every folder and file on my C drive (as well as my other drives). It seemed to work, but shortly thereafter certain installers and programs would give errors about not being able to access/write to certain folders, especially Program Files/Program Files (x86)/ProgramData. I figured it would be a good way to circumvent UAC permissions in regards to those folders. I'm one of those types of people that doesnt like being questioned by my own OS when it comes to being able to do whatever I want (deleting/writing files, running programs without "Are you sure?" messages, UAC prompts, etc. It still confounds me how I can get permissions and "Access denied" errors etc even when I'm logged in as Administrator (note the uppercase A).

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Hello Steve,

You are still able to manually take ownership of executable-type files all you like.

It's just that the context menu item in this tutorial must be used in the "Run" registry key that has "Run as administrator" there by default for these file types instead. You could have either one, but not both. Since "Run as administrator" is more commonly used with executable-type files, I just decided to leave it for these instead.

Hope this helps.

 

[Enigma]

So there's no Registry hack I can use to add Take Ownership to the right-click context menu so that BOTH "Run as administrator" and "Take ownership" are both visible? And why do I get errors after taking ownership of all (and I do mean ALL) files on my drive? Why does Windows question what I'm doing and oftentimes deny permission when I try to do something, even as Admin (generally speaking)?

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Currently not for both. It just doesn't work with both.

You get errors when you try to do the C: drive (which you should not do) because it's also trying to take ownership and set permissions of junction points, boot files, and other protected OS files.

Most likely you are trying to access junction points or protected OS files. Junction points are not real files, but only symbolic links for backwards compatibility. Protected OS files are denied by default for your own protection. You mess with these files, and there's a good chance that Windows may become unstable.