Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10  

Hello I got myself into a little trouble using this script, hopefully you can help, or at the very least some other poor fool(err I mean soul) will be spared.

I was trying to create space on another persons drive so I grabbed their system drive and plugged it into my computer. They had about 50 gigs in C:\Users\UserName\AppData. I couldn't Access it so yes you guessed it "Take Ownership". I had to do this at the UserName level. It ran for like 4 minutes, which is a long time concerning file operations with this computer. This part of the operation was as expected, transferred the files.

When I hooked it back up to the other computer, it said the disk needed to be repaired. I let it go through the operation, rebooted windows, made it to the desktop. First problem, right click on windows start was no longer functional. Second problem, Firefox wouldn't load their profile and could not make any connections citing SEC_ERROR_LIBRARY_FAILURE. They had a couple .png files on the desktop, on attempted viewing, software blamed incorrect permission and failed to load image. Ah yes and who could forget the dreaded com surrogate failures or the myriad AppModel-State Errors E.g.,Failure to load the application settings for package Microsoft.Windows.Photos_8wekyb3d8bbwe. Error Code: -2147024891.

I had them run Take Ownership on the same path I did, this didn't fix the issue's. On the bright side, They could view those .png files by Taking Ownership.

Any Help or Ideas would be highly appreciated.

Brink said:

Hello Warsong, and welcome.

You could see if using "Reset Permissions" below may restore the default permissions of the same folder and contents.

Add Reset Permissions to Context Menu in Windows

Your solution worked for the majority of problems! There's a slight change in OS operation as it's now adamant that things are "run as admin". Firefox profile got locked somehow still figuring that one out.

Thank you much for taking the time Brink. I still appreciate the script as well. It's only running with scissors that got me into trouble.
Need to take time to fully understand tools before using them.

Not a big deal and hopefully it wasn't already discussed (I scanned a bit, didn't see) but, does anyone know what is different in this and the old faithful (seems simpler) version I been using since Windows 2000? Any reason not to use the old version?

Code:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

Brink said:

Hello mate,

The new version is more compatible, and includes more safety measures to prevent taking ownership of specific system folders or drives that could break something.

Alright, Thanks. Sound good, plus I kind of like the "HasLUAShield" part.

Brink,

I've improved the Context Menu, making "takeown /d y" work for all languages beside English. While I tested it for taking over folders and drives, you might want to confirm the changes for yourself.

Drive block's AppliesTo was moved up a few lines to stay consistent with Directory's order.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Created by: Shawn Brink
; Created on: January 28, 2015
; Updated on: January 11, 2021
; Tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3841-add-take-ownership-context-menu-windows-10-a.html



[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\TakeOwnership]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\TakeOwnership]
@="Take Ownership"
"Extended"=-
"HasLUAShield"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""
"NeverDefault"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\TakeOwnership\command]
@="powershell -windowstyle hidden -command \"Start-Process cmd -ArgumentList '/c takeown /f \\\"%1\\\" && icacls \\\"%1\\\" /grant *S-1-3-4:F /t /c /l' -Verb runAs\""
"IsolatedCommand"= "powershell -windowstyle hidden -command \"Start-Process cmd -ArgumentList '/c takeown /f \\\"%1\\\" && icacls \\\"%1\\\" /grant *S-1-3-4:F /t /c /l' -Verb runAs\""



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\TakeOwnership]
@="Take Ownership"
"AppliesTo"="NOT (System.ItemPathDisplay:=\"C:\\Users\" OR System.ItemPathDisplay:=\"C:\\ProgramData\" OR System.ItemPathDisplay:=\"C:\\Windows\" OR System.ItemPathDisplay:=\"C:\\Windows\\System32\" OR System.ItemPathDisplay:=\"C:\\Program Files\" OR System.ItemPathDisplay:=\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\")"
"Extended"=-
"HasLUAShield"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""
"Position"="middle"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\TakeOwnership\command]
@="powershell -windowstyle hidden -command \"$Y = ($null | choice).Substring(1,1); Start-Process cmd -ArgumentList ('/c takeown /f \\\"%1\\\" /r /d ' + $Y + ' && icacls \\\"%1\\\" /grant *S-1-3-4:F /t /c /l /q') -Verb runAs\""
"IsolatedCommand"="powershell -windowstyle hidden -command \"$Y = ($null | choice).Substring(1,1); Start-Process cmd -ArgumentList ('/c takeown /f \\\"%1\\\" /r /d ' + $Y + ' && icacls \\\"%1\\\" /grant *S-1-3-4:F /t /c /l /q') -Verb runAs\""



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"AppliesTo"="NOT (System.ItemPathDisplay:=\"C:\\\")"
"Extended"=-
"HasLUAShield"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""
"Position"="middle"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c for /f \"tokens=1,2 delims=[,]\\\" %Y in ('"choice <nul 2>nul"') do takeown /f \"%1\\\" /r /d %Y && icacls \"%1\\\" /grant *S-1-3-4:F /t /c"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c for /f \"tokens=1,2 delims=[,]\\\" %Y in ('"choice <nul 2>nul"') do takeown /f \"%1\\\" /r /d %Y && icacls \"%1\\\" /grant *S-1-3-4:F /t /c"