Generally speaking, a user needs to take ownership of a file in the Windows operating system before renaming, editing, and deleting protected operating system files.
Unfortunately, like its predecessors, Windows 10 also doesn’t offer an easy way to take ownership of files. While it’s possible to take ownership of files from GUI and Command Prompt, the procedure is not straight-forward.
If you often need to take ownership of files to edit, modify or delete files, adding Take ownership option to the file right-click menu or file context menu is a good idea. By adding Take ownership option to the right-click menu, you can take ownership of files in a few seconds.
In order to add Take ownership option to the right-click menu in Windows 10, you need to make a couple of changes to the Windows Registry. Since not all users are comfortable with manually editing the Registry, we are providing a ready-to-use Registry file that you can merge to easily make necessary changes to the Windows Registry and add Take ownership option to the file context menu of Windows 10.
Add Take ownership to file/folder context menu in Windows 10
Follow the given below directions to add Take ownership option to the file context menu in Windows 10.
Step 1: Click here to download Take Ownership.zip file. Extract the downloaded zip file to get Install Take Ownership.reg and Uninstall Take Ownership.reg files.
Step 2: Right-click on Install Take Ownership.reg file and then click Merge option.
Step 3: Click the Run button if you see the following file security warning.
Step 4: Next, you will get the User Account Control prompt where you need to click the Yes button to continue.
Step 5: When you see the Registry Editor dialog, click the Yes button to add the information to Registry.
Step 6: Finally, click the OK button.
Step 7: You should now see Take Ownership option when you right-click on a file or folder in Windows 10. If not, restart the Windows Explorer or restart your PC once. You should now see Take ownership option whenever you right-click on a file in Windows 10.
Remove Take ownership option from the file context menu
To remove Take Ownership option from file/folder context menu, please merge the Uninstall Take Ownership.reg file included in Take Ownership.zip file that you downloaded in the first step of this guide.
Take ownership of a file/folder
To take ownership of a file, right-click on a file, click Take ownership option, and click Yes button when you see the UAC prompt.
TakeOwnershipEx is a free tool out there to quickly take ownership of files in the Windows operating system.
