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How to Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11

In this guide, we will show you the steps to take ownership of files and folders on your Windows 11 PC. If you are an administrator, then you would be able to access most of the C drive files, tweak system settings and carry out numerous tasks that require elevated privileges. However, there are still some activities that even an administrator wouldn’t be able to execute.

For example, if you want to access the WindowsApps folder, take control of a hard drive that belongs to another computer, or delete shared files with corrupt permissions, then simply having an administrator account wouldn’t suffice. This is because these tweaks belong to Microsoft’s Trusted Installer account.

Hence you will have to take ownership of those files from the Trusted Installer over to your admin account. In this regard, there are three different approaches that you could take. And in this guide, we have explained all of them. So without further ado, let’s make you aware of all the methods through which you could take ownership of files and folders on your Windows 11 PC.

How to Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11

take ownership of files and folders on Windows 11

Given hereby are three different methods that shall help you to take ownership of files and folders. These methods are listed in an increasing order of time and effort required. In other words, the method that is fastest to execute and requires minimal effort is first in this list, and so on. Keeping that in mind, let’s get started.

Method 1: Take Ownership Via One-Click Registry Editor Hack

We have created a single-click Registry Editor hack file that will add the Take Ownership option to your mouse right-click (i.e. context menu). Hence, you will be able to easily take ownership of the desired file or folder with just a single click. Here’s how:

  1. To begin with, download the Take Ownership Registry Editor file and extract it to any convenient location on your PC.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  2. Then double-click on the Add Take Ownership.reg file and click Run in the confirmation dialog box that appears.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  3. Wait for the process to complete, which would only take a few seconds. Once done, just head over to the desired file/folder.
  4. Now right-click on that file/folder and select the Take Ownership option from the context menu.
  5. That’s it, you are now the owner of this file and you may carry out the desired task.

So this was the first method to take ownership of files and folders on your Windows 11 PC. This is by far the quickest and easiest approach to carry out this task. Another benefit of this method is that you could easily revert the settings and give the ownership back to Trusted Installer once you are done with your work.

To do so, just run the Remove Ownership.reg file that we have provided. However, some of the users might not be comfortable in directly executing a registry file on their PC. If you also belong to this category, then fret not. You may refer to the other two methods that we have shared below.

Method 2: Take Ownership via Command Prompt in Windows 11

This is another pretty nifty method that does the job of assigning ownership in no time whatsoever. Moreover, it doesn’t require any registry editor tweak, you just have to execute a couple of commands and that’s it. Follow along for the instructions.

  1. Head over to the Start Menu, search CMD, and launch Command Prompt as an administrator.
    command prompt admin windows 11
  2. Now change the directory of CMD using the cd command to the location where you have the desired file/folder.
  3. For example, I wish to perform this tweak on the WindowsApps folder which is located in the C:\Program Files directory. So I would use the below command:
    cd C:\Program Files

    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11

  4. Once the directory has been changed, use the below two commands to take ownership of a “folder” in Windows 11:
    takeown /f foldername /r /d y
    icacls foldername /grant administrators:F /t
  5. Make sure to replace the foldername from the above two commands accordingly. For example, since I am dealing with the WindowsApps folder, the command in my case will be:
    takeown /f WindowsApps /r /d y
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
    icacls WindowsApps /grant administrators:F /t
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  6. On the other hand, if you want to take ownership of a file, then use the following two commands:
    takeown /f filename
    icacls filename /grant administrators:F
  7. Again, make sure to replace the filename from the above commands accordingly. For example, let’s take ownership of the Windows Media Player EXE file named wmplayer.exe (present inside C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player):
    takeown /f wmplayer.exe
    icacls wmplayer.exe /grant administrators:F

    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11

That’s it. These were the steps to take ownership of files and folders in Windows 11 via Command Prompt.

Method 3: Manually Take File/Folder Ownership in Windows 11

In this section, we will be manually taking over the ownership of the required file/folder from Trusted Installer and assigning it to your administrator account. Here’s how:

  1. To begin with, launch File Explorer via Windows+E shortcut and head over to the desired file or folder.
  2. Then right-click on that file/folder and select Properties.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  3. Go to the Security tab and then click on the Advanced button situated at the bottom.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  4. Then click on the Change button next to Owner: TrustedInstaller.
  5. Under the “Enter Object Names to select” field, type in administrator and click on the Check Names button.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  6. It shall now bring up your PC’s Administrator name, click OK to continue ahead.
  7. You shall now see the Owner being changed from TrustedInstaller to your administrator account.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  8. Now, check-mark the “Replace owner on sub containers and objects” option situated just beneath the Owner field.
  9. Finally, click Apply > OK to save the changes. Windows will now begin the process of transferring the ownership.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  10. Once done, you shall get a notification something along the lines of “If you have just taken ownership of this object…..”. Hit OK to close it.
    Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 11
  11. That’s it. You have now got ownership of that concerned file/folder on your Windows 11 PC.

With this, we round off the guide on how you could take ownership of files and folders on Windows 11. We have shared three different methods for the same. Do let us know in the comments section which method spelled out success for you.


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  • Graham Thorburn

    Hi Sadiq, This is terrific BUT am I blind? – I can’t see the link to the download registry hack, adn I’m not sure whether the old one I downloaded some years ago still applies to Windows 11.

  • Alphonse

    “A technical geek by birth” who knows how to clearly write technical articles. Thank you!!!

  • very simple using Admin CMD. worked like a charm. thank you