Take Ownership & Grant Full Control Permission in Windows 7/Vista

Folder access denied 

Windows 7 and Vista's file permissions is managed by the Trusted Installer and it is the owner of all Windows system files. So, Windows 7/Vista doesn't allow any user even the Administrator to modify (rename, delete, move) those system files. Sometime for tweaking, you might need to rename, replace or move the system file in Windows operating systems. But it needs to take ownership of a file and grant full control permission before modifying it. Otherwise, a pop-up message will show you Access is denied in Windows.


Here, you'll know the easiest way to take ownership and how to grant full control permission on a folder or file using the command prompt.

Take ownership of a file/folder:

Go to start menu > All programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and run it as an administrator.

• Learn how to enable administrator account in Windows.

In command prompt type:

takeown /f "path"

Take ownership using command prompt 

Type the location/directory of the file or folder instead of path. Example: C:\windows\system32

If you need to take ownership often, then use the registry hack file from here. Extract it. Double-click on InstallTakeOwnerShip.reg and an option willbe added in your context menu.

Grant Full Control Permissions:

After taking ownership, in the command prompt type:

icacls "path" /grant user:f

Grant full control permissions 

Replace the path with the file or folder location name (Ex: C:\windows\system32) and replace the user with you user account name (Ex: Administrator).

Here, take ownership of windows system32 folder make me the owner of system32 folder and grant full control permissions will let me modify the folder that had only Windows access.