How to change owner of file, folder, drive, or registry key in Windows 10

[JamieKavanagh]

To be able to move, modify, delete or do anything useful in Windows, you have to be the owner of that resource. For some reason, Windows makes it quite difficult to truly own what’s yours on your computer. So here’s how to change owner of file, folder, drive, or registry key in Windows 10.

Take ownership of files, folders or drives in Windows 10
If you’re lucky, you should be able to right click any drive, folder or file and select ‘Take Ownership’. That depends entirely on how you have your computer set up. If you don’t have that option, try this:

1. Right click the drive, folder or file and select Properties.
2. Select Advanced and you should see the Advanced Security Settings window appear. Check the Owner and select Change to modify.
3. Type in the name you use on the computer in the box and click Check Names. Once it appears underlined, click Ok.
4. Optional: Check the box next to ‘Replace owner on subcontainers and objects’ to take ownership of everything contained in the drive or folder.
5. Click Ok.
6. Right click the drive, folder or file and select Properties once more.
7. Select Security and then Add.
8. Click ‘Select a Principal’ in the Permission Entry window that appears.
9. Select your account and set permission to ‘Full control’ and click Ok.
10. Check the box ‘Replace all existing inheritable permissions on all descendants with inheritable permissions from this object’ and click Ok.

The permissions for that drive, folder or file should now be changed to reflect your account.

To take ownership of a registry key in Windows 10
1. Type or paste ‘regedit’ into the Search Windows box.
2. Select the key you want to take ownership of and click Edit in the top menu.
3. Select Permissions, Advanced and Owner.
4. Change owner to you in the next window and then click Ok to confirm.

Take more control over Windows 10 with these tips:
How to get into advanced startup options in Windows 10
How to stop wake timers in Windows 10
How to turn USB notifications on or off in Windows 10

View all of our Windows 10 Tutorials