How to take ownership or privileges of files and folders in Windows Vista
August 23rd, 2008
If you are trying to change or modify a system file in Windows Vista, you will run into a difficulty when it comes to replacing or changing system files. You have to take ownership of the file and then grant your username full control of the file, after you can make your modifications to the file.
So here is the solution that helps to accomplish the goal to take permission of files and folders in Windows Vista.
How to-
1. Run CMD as Administrator
2. Execute the following commands one by one:
TAKEOWN /F [Path of file or folder]
ICACLS /grant [Path of file or folder] Administrators:F
3. Now you able to change or modify the files and folders
Well there is a reg tweak which when run puts a Take Ownership option in the right click context menu.
takeown fails, with Access is denied error. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be? I am running in an elevated command prompt.
this is a good one
plz
do give complex examples
I’m having trouble with some files too.
I made a backup of my HDD Video Camera (via USB) while I was on holiday. Now I want to delete the files and cannot delete a single one. The backup is on my laptop’s internal HDD. I’m running Windows Vista Home. (which I haven’t liked since getting the new laptop with it pre-installed!… not that that matters here
)
I have tried changing permissions and taking ownership via Windows properties, but haven’t gotten anywhere. Under the “Security” tab, it shows “You do not have permission to view or edit this object’s permossion settings.” It says the same under the “Permissions”, “Auditing” and “Effective Permissions” on the “Advanced” settings window. Under the “Owner” tab, it shows “Unable to display the current owner.” and I can’t do anything further. Attempting to edit the settings just wnds with the message “Unable to set new owner on {FILENAME}. // Access is denied.”
Here’s what happens with takeown and icacls:
e:\2008-06-28_video_camera>takeown /f M2U00076.MPG
ERROR: Access is denied.
e:\2008-06-28_video_camera>icacls M2U00076.MPG /grant Administrators:F
Access is denied.
Successfully processed 0 files; Failed processing 1 files
I know this post hasn’t been active for a while, but you shown interest in the previous problem, and didn’t get a response so I thought I’d oblige.
Ok, the backup is now fully deleted, somehow…
Since my previous post, I have scheduled scandisk to run on the drive after reboot (it would not run within Windows due to the disk being active) and I’ve installed some updates for Windows and Comodo firewall.
After rebooting, the file that I was having trouble with was gone. I didn’t need to press delete again, it had already been removed. Must have been an issue within the file system I suppose… hehe