By default, a user who creates files and folders is marked as their owner. Ownership gives users full authority over the created file or folder; so they can choose who gets access to use and modify them.
Windows may deny other users access to files and folders due to lack of permissions. If the original owner of this file or folder does not exist, as an administrator you can take ownership of the file or folder by delving into the file’s properties.
How to Take Ownership of Files or Folders
With administrative privileges, you can take ownership of any file or folder created by another user in Windows 10. After logging in with an administrator account, here’s how to take ownership of a file or folder.
Stage 1: Right-click the file or folder and choose Properties from the context menu.
Step 2: In the Properties window, switch to the Security tab and click the Advanced button.
Stage 3: Here, the name of the current owner of the file or folder will be displayed at the top. Click the Change button to transfer ownership to someone else.
Step 4: In the following window, under ‘Enter the object name to select’, enter the username you want to transfer ownership to. Once entered, check the validity by clicking the Check Names button next to the entered username. Then click OK.
Alternatively, you can use the Advanced button to quickly search for a username.
Step 5: When changing the ownership of a folder, you can also apply the change of ownership to all its subfolders, if you wish, by ticking the checkbox that says ‘Change owner in subcontainers and objects’ in the ‘Advanced Security Settings’ window.
Step 6: After that, hit Apply and then OK.
Now that the ownership of the selected file or folder has been transferred, you can now give the new owner various permissions to modify that file or folder.
How to Grant Permissions to a File or Folder
After changing owner, change, read, write etc. You must grant full access to the new owner by granting certain permissions to How to do it is explained below.
Stage 1: Right-click the file or folder and choose Properties from the context menu. In the Properties window, switch to the Security tab and click the Advanced button.
Step 2: In the Advanced Security Settings window, click the Add button.
Stage 3: In the Permission Entry window that opens, click ‘Choose a master’ to specify the user to whom you have granted the permissions.
Step 4: In the ‘Select User or Group’ window, add the user’s name. Then click OK.
Step 5: After that you will be able to choose from the list of permissions under ‘Basic permissions’. Select ‘Full control’ to grant all available permissions. Then click OK.
That is all. The file or folder in question has now been transferred to its new owner.
How to Take Ownership of Files or Folders with Command Prompt
Besides changing file properties, you can also take ownership of any file or folder using the takeown.exe tool if you are comfortable using Command Prompt. Here’s how.
Stage 1: Open File Explorer and import the file or folder to transfer ownership. To copy the file/folder path, select it and click Copy path at the top.
Step 2: Now open the Start menu, type cmdClick it and click Run as administrator on your right to open Command Prompt with administrator rights.
Stage 3: Type the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter to take ownership of a file or folder.
takeown /F
Replace in the above command with the path of the file or folder copied in step 1.
Once complete, you will see a confirmation stating the ownership change.
As we just saw, using the Command Prompt is much faster than going through multiple Properties windows. But the only problem is that you cannot specify a user or group when changing ownership. That is, you can only transfer ownership to the current user or local admin group.
Take Responsibility with Ownership
Taking ownership will grant you the necessary permissions to access or modify files and folders in Windows 10. Once transferred, you can read, write or modify that file or folder as you see fit.
Besides the above, taking ownership can also be useful when you want to force delete files and folders or import files into Registry Editor.
