Take ownership (permission ) of files, folder in Windows 7 and XP to access those completely

MERCENIE TEAM
June 20, 2013

How to take ownership of a file and folder in Windows 7 and XP – will show you the complete step-by-step instruction to add your local user (instead of administrator) to take ownership of a file and folder (either system file or not) and then modify the permission for the user to access that file or folder completely (Full Control) in Windows 7 and Windows XP. The process for Windows 7 and Xp is slightly different from the process to take ownership and modify the permission of file and folder in Windows 8.

Some of the files in your Windows operating system are owned by the system and the administrator user. So other local users are not able to modify those files. Whenever you try log in to your XP or Windows 7 system then a local user with the same name to administrator (If another local or guest user is not created) logged in, So before modifying the files and folder owned by the system or the administrator you need to take ownership of the file and change the permission of that to access that file completely by your local user on which you logged in.

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The process will complete in two steps.
1. You need to add your local user to take ownership of the file (system or not).
2. Then it need to modify the permission of that file for your local user to access that file completely(Full Control).

How to take ownership of a file in Windows 7 and XP

1. Open the folder that contains the file or folder whose ownership you want to cahnge.
2. Select that file or folder, Right click of mouse on that and choose “Properties“.
3. Navigate to “Security” tab on the property window and click on “Advanced” (If the security tab is missing then you need to enable the missing security tab on your Windows 7 and XP system).
4. Go to “Owner” tab on the advanced property setting Window and click on “Edit“.
5. A new window for Advanced security option will be opened.
6. You will get a table asking for “Change Owner to“. Now select the user to whom you want to give the ownership.
7. Tick the check box “Replace Owner on sub container and objects” below that table and “Apply” the modified settings.
8. Windows Security will show you a warning message of “If you have just taken ownership of this object, you will need to close and reopen this object’s properties before you can view or change the permissions“.
9. Just ignore the message and click on “OK“.
10. Now close all the open Window by clicking on “OK“. That is it.

How to change permission of a file or folder in Windows 7

1. Open the folder that contains the file or folder whose ownership you want to cahnge.
2. Select that file or folder, Right click of mouse on it and choose “Properties“.
3. Navigate to “Security” tab on the property window and click on “Edit” (If the security tab is missing then you need to enable the missing security tab on your Windows 7 and XP system).
4. Now select the user whose permission you want to modify to access it completely on “Group or User names” (You need to take ownership of that file or folder before changing the permission).
5. Now on the permission for Selected user tick below the “Allow” Section of “Full Control“.
6. Now click on “Apply“.
7. User Account Control (UAC) will show you a warning message for Windows Security that “You are about to change the permission setting on system folders. This can reduce the Security of your computer and cause users to have problems accessing the files. Do you want to Continue?“. Just ignore the message and Click on “Yes“.
8. Now click on “OK” and close all the open Windows.
9. That is it. Now you have change the permission for the selected user and give them Full control.

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One Comment

  1. george says:

    a question: why the “owner” has to be assigned, and owner-free whole dics can not be created?
    There is a underlying question a about “security”. Who’s? The creator, PC, source has to be clemmed, earmarked?

    Next: Is there a simple way to use my USB drive in a library? so far the files are are “read only” -which is not true.

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