Add Take Ownership to right-click menu in Windows Vista

If you have to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows Vista, then you have to go through many steps. But you can add the whole series commands to the right-click context menu so that you can just right-click on a file or folder and choose Take Ownership to take the ownership of the selected item. Here is how :

  1. Press the keyboard shortcut Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog. In the Run dialog, type regedit and press Enter. This will open the Windows Registry Editor.

  2. In the Windows Registry Editor, navigate to the following key :
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*shell
  3. Right-click on shell key and select New → Key to create a sub-key. Put the name of the key ownership. Change the default value of the newly created key to Take Ownership.

  4. Now right-click on ownership key and select New → Key to create a sub-key. Put the name of the key command. Change the default value of the newly created key to :
    cmd.exe /c icacls “%1” /setowner Administrators && icacls “%1” /grant Administrators:F

  5. We just finished added right-click menu for all files. Now we will add right-click menu to all the folders. In the Windows Registry Editor, navigate to the following key :
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryshell
  6. Right-click on shell key and select New → Key to create a sub-key. Put the name of the key ownership. Change the default value of the newly created key to Take Ownership.

  7. Now right-click on ownership key and select New → Key to create a sub-key. Put the name of the key command. Change the default value of the newly created key to :
    cmd.exe /c icacls “%1” /setowner Administrators && icacls “%1” /grant Administrators:F /T

Alternatively, you can download the ready made Registry Entries file take_ownership.zip. Download the ZIP file and extract the contents to your desktop. Then double-click on the add_take_ownership.reg. Choose Yes when asked.