Change the owner of file, folder, drive, or registry key in Windows 10

To be able to transfer, alter, remove or do anything necessary in Windows, you have to be the owner of that resource. For security reasons, Windows makes it difficult to change ownership of what’s inside your computer. So here’s how to change the owner of file, folder, drive, or registry key in Windows 10.

Take ownership of files, folders or drives in Windows 10

1. Right-click the drive, folder or file, and select Properties.
2. Go to Security tab.
3. Click Advanced and you should see the Advanced Security Settings window appear. Check the Owner and select Change to modify.
4. Type in the name you use on the computer in the box and click Check Names. Once it appears underlined, click OK.
5. Optional: Check the box next to ‘Replace owner on sub-containers and objects’ to take ownership of everything contained in the drive or folder. 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 in ‘regedit’ (without quotes) into the Search Windows box.
2. Select the key you want to take ownership of and click Edit in the top menu.
3. Choose Permissions, Advanced and Owner.
4. Change owner to you in the next window and then click OK to confirm.