How to Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP

If you must access a file or a folder that you do not have access to, you must take ownership of that file or folder. When you do this, you replace the security permissions to have access.

If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File Sharing. By default, Windows XP Professional uses Simple File sharing when it is not joined to a domain. If simple file sharing is enabled, you see the simple file sharing user interface appears instead of the Security and Sharing tabs.

To see hidden files:

1. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options.
2. Click the View tab.
3. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders.


Note: To access Windows Explorer, click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.

How Do I see the Security Tab in XP Home?

If you are using Windows XP Home then download this Security Configuration Manager file from Microsoft. SCESP4I.EXE
Double click to run it and then type in C:\TEMP\SCM and press OK
Then using Explorer browse to the C:\TEMP\SCM folder and locate the file named: setup.inf then Right click on it and select Install
Once the installation is completed you need to restart your computer.

Note: To use Security settings your hard drive must use NTFS.

Note: To allow for specific users to access the share folder after the simple file sharing is disabled, you should configure both the NTFS permissions on the Security tab and the share permission on the Sharing tab of the share folder. NTFS permissions can only be set on a partition using NTFS file system. If you remove the Every Group from the NTFS permission, you cannot access the share folder over the network.

How to turn off simple file sharing

1. To disable simple file sharing, follow these steps:Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
3. In the Advanced Settings section, clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
4. Click OK.

How to take ownership of a folder

1. To take ownership of a folder, follow these steps:Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
5. Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message:

You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder name. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?

All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.

Note: Folder name is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of.

6. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents.

How to take ownership of a file

Note: You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials.

1. To take ownership of a file, follow these steps:Right-click the file that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Name list, click Administrator, or click the Administrators group, and then click OK.

The administrator or the Administrators group now owns the file. To change the permissions on the files and folders under this folder, go to step 5.

5. Click Add.
6. In the Enter the object names to select (examples) list, type the user or group account that you want to give access to the file. For example, type Administrator.
7. Click OK.
8. In the Group or user names list, click the account that you want, and then select the check boxes of the permissions that you want to assign that user.
9. When you are finished assigning permissions, click OK.

Here is an alternative method
For Windows XP Home Edition ONLY! - we need to add the Security Tab to Explorer

Download this Security Configuration Manager file from Microsoft. SCESP4I.EXE
Double click to run it and type in EXACTLY or copy / paste the following path to extract it to.
If it is not correct then this method will not work. C:\TEMP\SCM
Then click OK

NOTE! Close all open applications as you will need to restart the computer after the end of this routine

Copy this entry and click on START - RUN and paste it into the run box and click OK:

RUNDLL32.EXE SETUPAPI.DLL,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\TEMP\SCM\setup.inf

This will start the installation of the Security Configuration Manager that you downloaded earlier.

It will then ask you to restart your computer. Please restart your computer now when asked.

Posted in: Programming,Tweaking,Windows XP