How to Add “Take Ownership” to the Context Menu in Windows Ever tried modifying a file in Windows— only to be stopped by a permissions error? You're not alone. In this video, we'll show you how to take ownership of files and folders in Windows 10 and 11. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to NinjaOne's IT Video Hub and our YouTube channel for more tech content like this. What Is File Ownership? Taking ownership of a file or folder means becoming its primary controller. This gives you the ability to modify, move, or delete files that are otherwise restricted— whether they’re from an old Windows installation, inherited from another system, or system files, you need access to for troubleshooting. So what are the different ways you can take ownership of these files? How to Add “Take Ownership” to the Context Menu Let's start with the most convenient method: adding a “Take Ownership” option directly to your right-click context menu. First, press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor. Navigate to this location, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*, for files or this one, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory, for folders. Right-click the shell key, select New and then Key, and name it TakeOwnership. Inside TakeOwnership, create a string value named MUIVerb with the value TakeOwnership. Optionally, add another string value named Icon and set its value to this: imageres.dll,-78. Next, create a subkey called command and set its default value as follows... Finally, restart Windows Explorer via the Task Manager to apply the changes. Now right-clicking any file or folder will show the new option. How to Remove “Take Ownership” from the Context Menu Conversely, if you need to remove this option from the menu, here's how. First, open Registry Editor and navigate to this location... Simply right-click TakeOwnership and select Delete. Confirm this action and restart Windows Explorer. Alternative Methods to Configure “Take Ownership” Don’t want to edit the Registry? There are other ways to add “Take Ownership” to the context menu, such as Command Prompt. Method 1 — Command Prompt Simply open Command Prompt as an administrator and run this command... Method 2 — PowerShell If you prefer using PowerShell, then run this command on it... You can also use Get-ACL and Set-ACL to define ownership at a deeper level. Method 3 — File Properties Lastly, to take ownership of a file through file properties, just right-click the file and select Properties, the Security tab, Advanced, and then Change Owner. Overall, taking ownership of files and folders gives you power but comes with great responsibility. Use this feature wisely— and always rollback changes after you're done troubleshooting. For more information, check out our official blog post on adding “Take Ownership” to the context menu, linked in the description below.