How to Add “Take Ownership” to the Right-Click Menu in Windows Explorer

Taking ownership of files and folders is no easy task. It is very tedious and if you change your system files a lot, this can prove to be a tiresome task. Why not simply add a “Take Ownership” button whenever you right click on any file/folder?

In Windows operating system, a user that has ownership of a file/folder has implicit rights to change the permissions on that object. That user is also allowed to access the file/folder. There are a lot of cases where you need to take over the ownership of a folder or file. It might be the system file you want to delete which is causing you so many problems or you might have a hard drive from another computer that you need to control files on

Whatever the reason, you can easily change ownership of the file/folder through individual dialogue boxes in Windows or through the command line. But both methods are very time consuming and make you carry out all the steps. We will teach you on how to add a context menu of “Take ownership” through a few registry edits so you can easily gain access to a file through a single click.

Adding “Take Ownership” using the Registry Editor

We need to make some changes in your computer’s registry. This process can be considered as a long and tedious task but, you only have to go through it once and life will be easy. Do note that Registry Editor is a very powerful tool in Windows and you should be very careful when making changes in it. Backup your registry or create a restore point of your Windows if you have important data on the PC.

1. Press Windows + R to launch your computer’s Run Type “regedit” in the dialogue and hit Enter. This will launch the Registry Editor.

We are going to make changes in two locations in the registry. The first location will add the “Take Ownership” to the context menu for files of any type while the second location will add the option to the context menu of any folder.

2. Now navigate to this location when in the Registry Editor using the left side of the screen.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > * > shell

3. Now we need to create a new key inside the shell key. Right-click on the shell key and choose the option “New> Key”. We need to name the key “runas”. If you already have this key in your registry, you can skip this step and move on with the next one.

4. Now we are going to change the Default value present inside the key runas we just created. Select the runas key and double click the “default” quickly to open its Properties.
5. Once in the properties, type “Take Ownership” into the Value Data box present. Click “OK” to save your changes. This value will become the command when you open the context menu. You can also change it to any other name if you want.

6. Now we are going to create a new value inside the runas key. Right click on the runas key and choose “New > String Value”. Name the new value as “NoWorkingDirectory”.

7. Now we are going to create a new key inside the runas key. Right click on the runas key and choose “New > Key”. Name the new key as “command”.
8. Now with command key selected, double-click on the Default value present on the right pane to open its properties.
9. In the Value Data box present in the properties, type the following code (take care of the spaces and the numerical values). Click Ok when you are done.

10. Now we need to create a new value inside the command key. Right-click the command key and select “New > String Value”. Name the new value as “IsolatedCommand”.

11. After naming it, double click it to open its properties.
12. In the Value Data box, type the following text and press Ok. This is the same command we added earlier to the default value.

This will add the “Take ownership” command to the context menu for files.

Now we will add the context menu option to folders. We are going to make essentially the same changes we did earlier but to a different directory.

1. Navigate to the following path in your Registry Editor.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > Directory > shell

2. Now we need to create a new key inside the shell key. Right-click on the shell key and choose the option “New> Key”. We need to name the key “runas”. If you already have this key in your registry, you can skip this step and move on with the next one.

3. Now we are going to change the Default value present inside the key runas we just created. Select the runas key and double click the “default” quickly to open its Properties.
4. Once in the properties, type “Take Ownership” into the Value Data box present. Click “OK” to save your changes. This value will become the command when you open the context menu. You can also change it to any other name if you want.

5. Now we are going to create a new value inside the runas key. Right click on the runas key and choose “New > String Value”. Name the new value as “NoWorkingDirectory”.

6. Now we are going to create a new key inside the runas key. Right click on the runas key and choose “New > Key”. Name the new key as “command”.

7. Now with command key selected, double-click on the Default value present on the right pane to open its properties.
8. In the Value Data box present in the properties, type the following code (take care of the spaces and the numerical values). Click Ok when you are done.

9. Now we need to create a new value inside the command key. Right-click the command key and select “New > String Value”. Name the new value as “IsolatedCommand”.

10. After naming it, double click it to open its properties.
11. In the Value Data box, type the following text and press Ok. This is the same command we added earlier to the default value.

This will add the “Take ownership” command to the context menu for folders.

Related articles:

How to manually take ownership of files/folders.

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