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

 

[Brink]

If you like, here's more details about exFAT below.

exFAT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia​

When you right click on a drive and click on Format, the exFAT option is only available for removable drives like a USB flash drive.

However, you should be able to format the internal hard drive as exFAT in the command prompt using the command below as a workaround. Substitute F for your drive letter instead.

Format F: /A:64K /FS:ExFAT​

 

[RTCook]

Thanks for that, so far everything is running smoothly, of course it hasn't been that long so I will post back in a few days to let you know how everything has been going. I have to get everything installed and start putting exFAT through it's paces to see if it hurts my performance all that much, and if the drive magically locks itself or not.

Thanks again!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

Since it's an SSD, I don't think you'll see any noticeable difference in performance.

 

[nine09]

I also had the problem with installation files (exe only) not running after I applied the reg so I removed it. I just realised this now, after formatting my computer twice... Please write this in the description so that people know!

 

[Brink]

Hello nine09, and welcome to Eight Forums.

I'm not having that issue with .exe files when using either step 3 or 5.

Please export your HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile registry key and upload it here to see what the issue may be.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2598-screenshots-files-upload-post-eight-forums.html

EDIT: I went ahead and removed the .reg downloads for .exe files to be safe though.

 

[klepp0906]

Having a slight problem with this wonderful wonderful tweak. I had added the "elevated command prompt" to my context menu in the past and loved it, however I saw this and thought OMG! So I quickly added it and noticed my option for the command prompt was now gone.

I was just disabling a ton of services so I thought that may have been the culprit. I re added it and POOF now this one is gone. After a quick look around it seems their MAY have been some sort of work around present on the sevenforums... not sure if its possible or if it works on eight? Anyone have any help or am I forced to choose one or the other?

 

[Brink]

Hello Klepp,

Unfortunately, they both use the same "runas" registry key to be able run them elevated. You can add either one, but not both.

 

[klepp0906]

Boooooo! lol. I figured as much.

If you do install the "elevated command prompt" over the "take ownership" it will afford you the ability to use elevated via context on folders, and still have take ownership on individual files. Not ideal - but better than nothing.

Thank you for the reply, however I have one more question. I googled as I KNOW ive seen it before, but simply couldn't come up with it this time lol. As a compromise I was considering using the "take ownership" and having shift+right click for command prompt BUT I want the shift+right click to be ELEVATED command prompt. This is possible right? If memory serves and it is, can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks so much!

 

[Brink]

It is, but it'll still use the same runas key and replace Take Ownership.

You would add an Extended string value with a blank (empty) data value in the right pane of the runas key to make it Shift + right click.

 

[klepp0906]

Ugh... Well I guess that's that then. I had trouble with permissions due to a file owned by SYSTEM not letting me delete it which Take Ownership fixed. (not sure what I was overlooking via doing it manually - but apparently im not as familiar as I thought I was) so I wanted to keep Take Ownership for future endeavors.

With that being said, I use the command prompt much more often so im in a pickle.

I could just use the winX menu for command prompt and keep Take ownership, the only caveat is that id be stuck navigating to where I need/want to be by hand which can suck and most certainly takes longer. (we are all about convenience nowadays aren't we lol)

Aaaanyhow, for curiosities sake - what would/do you do?

 

[Brink]

I usually do both manually, but I'm old school as well.

 

[menace97]

thanks Brink as usual for a fantastic solution to an annoying issue that comes up from time to time.

for my personal tastes, i would really like to have the "Take Ownership" much lower down on the list of context menu items. it's something i rarely use, and don't need it right there with my primary commands, but also don't want to get rid of it for it being so useful.

i'm wondering if you or anyone might have some advice on the BEST method or software to use for rearranging context menu items. i haven't used a context menu editor in a while, but i remember trying a few of them and having trouble getting the result i was looking for. plus, for some reason, a lot of the context menu editing information seems to be years old, so i though i would ask (and perhaps this should be a new topic) what is truly the best, easiest to use method or software for editing the context menu?

thanks very much!

 

[David Bailey]

I use---

 

[Brink]

thanks Brink as usual for a fantastic solution to an annoying issue that comes up from time to time.

for my personal tastes, i would really like to have the "Take Ownership" much lower down on the list of context menu items. it's something i rarely use, and don't need it right there with my primary commands, but also don't want to get rid of it for it being so useful.

i'm wondering if you or anyone might have some advice on the BEST method or software to use for rearranging context menu items. i haven't used a context menu editor in a while, but i remember trying a few of them and having trouble getting the result i was looking for. plus, for some reason, a lot of the context menu editing information seems to be years old, so i though i would ask (and perhaps this should be a new topic) what is truly the best, easiest to use method or software for editing the context menu?

thanks very much!

I've updated the tutorial for you to be able to download the position you wanted instead.

 

[menace97]

Wow! Thank you Brink and David so much! I will check out what you updated Brink, and I'll check into "Ultimate Windows Context Menu Customizer" - I have not tried that one. Looks very nice indeed!

Much appreciated! Thank you *bows*

Edit:
I see "Ultimate Windows Context Menu Customizer" from door2windows does not officially support Windows 8.1, but I noticed that David you are also using Windows 8.1 as well, so I guess it must work just fine. I'll give it a shot. It sure looks very comprehensive. Actually the whole site has some pretty nifty tools. Nice!

Brink, you sure work fast! Thank you so much, that is absolutely perfect! I will be sure to check out the software David suggested but by you adding the top, middle and end options - that is everything I could ask for. You are amazing ty!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Menace. Glad we could help.

 

[andreasabe]

Modified version

I have changed my reg to work better, replaced administrators to "username", since I had problem changing the bootreg.dll. See attachment. View attachment Add_Take_Ownership_to_middle mod.reg

 

[Brink]

I have changed my reg to work better, replaced administrators to "username", since I had problem changing the bootreg.dll. See attachment. View attachment 56986

Hello Andreas, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Thank you for the addition. That's fine if you wanted to have the owner changed to the current user instead of the Administrators group.

In effect, it does the same thing since only an administrator account is able to take ownership. The only time when using %UserName% instead would be helpful is when you see this below in the Security properties where you must use the account name instead of the Administrators group for access.



There is a bug in your modified version though. The code should be this below instead for it to work.

Correct:

@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /a && icacls \"%1\" /grant \"%UserName%\":F /c /l"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /a && icacls \"%1\" /grant \"%UserName%\":F /c /l"

Instead of:

@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /a && icacls \"%1\" /grant "%username%":F /c /l"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /a && icacls \"%1\" /grant "%username%":F /c /l"

 

[chris98]

Thanks Brink!

This helped a lot in clearing the old rubbish out. However, there is still one file which I can't do anything with. It's not because of this, it just says that it's too long:

The filename(s) would be too long for the destination folder. You can shorten the filename and try again, or try a location with a shorter path.

Any ideas of what I can do to remove this? I already tried renaming via F2 and right click but neither will work.

 

[Brink]

Hello Chris,

You could see if the free program Unlocker may delete it.