[Guide] How to Restore “TrustedInstaller” as Default Owner of a File, Folder or Registry Key in Windows?

We all customization lovers know that we need to take ownership of a system file before replacing or modifying the file in Windows. Almost all Windows customization stuff require modification of system files for example, you need to edit Explorer.exe file to customize Start ORB in Windows 7, you need to edit authui.dll file to change login screen, etc.

By default, a built-in system account “TrustedInstaller” has ownership and full control of all system files in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and later OS, so you need to take ownership and assign full permission to yourself before modifying or replacing the system file.

Taking ownership of a file or folder is very easy. We have provided a ready-made registry script which automatically adds a new option “Take Ownership” in file and folder context menu (right-click menu). So you just need to right-click on a file or folder and select “Take Ownership” option and it automatically makes you the owner of that file/folder and assigns you full permission on that file/folder.

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How to Add “Take Ownership” Option to File or Folder Context Menu in Windows

We have also posted a detailed and easy to understand guide which teaches you how to take ownership of a file or folder manually in Windows:

[Guide] How to Take Ownership (Permission) of a File or Folder Manually in Windows?

Now the question comes! Once you have taken ownership of a file and now you want to restore “TrustedInstaller” as default owner of that file, how will you do that? How will you change the owner of a file back to “TrustedInstaller”?

We never realized that someone might need to restore ownership of a file to “TrustedInstaller” until we received following comment from an AskVG reader “KS”:

How do I give permissions back to TrustedInstaller, when I changed it, TrustedInstaller wasn’t in the list of possible owners anymore??

That was really an interesting point. Once you take ownership of a file or folder in Windows, if you go back to its Properties and try to change the owner back to “TrustedInstaller”, you’ll be surprised to see that “TrustedInstaller” is no longer present in the users list.

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So how to bring back the built-in system user “TrustedInstaller” and set it as default owner of a file or folder? Don’t worry! Here is the solution.

Today in this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to restore “TrustedInstaller” as default owner of a file or folder in Windows if you changed its owner to yourself?

So without wasting time, lets start the tutorial:

NOTE: The same method will apply to restore “TrustedInstaller” as owner of registry keys in Registry Editor.

1. Go to the folder which contains the file or folder for which you want to restore ownership to “TrustedInstaller”. Right-click on the file or folder and select Properties.

2. It’ll open its Properties window. Now go to “Security” tab and click on Advanced button.

File_Permissions_Details.png

3. It’ll open a new window.

For Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7:

Go to “Owner” tab and you’ll see that the owner would be set to your username and “TrustedInstaller” would not be present in the list as we mentioned above.

We’ll add it manually. Click on “Edit” button:

Editing_Owner_File_Folder.png

It’ll open another window. Click on “Other users or groups” button.

Changing_Owner_File_Folder.png

For Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10 and later:

Click on “Change” button present near your user account name in advanced security window.

Change_Owner_Windows_8_File_Folder.png

4. Now type NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller in “Enter the object name to select” text box and click on OK button as shown in following screenshot:

Restoring_TruestedInstaller_as_Owner_File_Folder.png

5. It’ll immediately add “TrustedInstaller” to the users list. Click on Apply button.

Setting_TruestedInstaller_as_Owner_File_Folder.png

6. Windows will show a message box, click on OK button to close it. Again click on OK button in all opened windows and you have successfully restored “TrustedInstaller” as default owner of the file or folder.

You can check and confirm the owner by opening the file or folder Properties and you’ll see that “TrustedInstaller” has become the owner of that file or folder again.

Also Check:

Add “Restore Ownership to TrustedInstaller” Option in Files / Folders Context Menu

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Just to doublecheck what you mean by “repair,” do you mean following the steps at this URL:

    eightforums.com/tutorials/26095-repair-install-windows-8-a.html

    If I’m reading that page correctly, I can see where it would “repair” certain things (I guess, hopefully, the permissions on the “Program Files” folder) without destroying too much in the process. Like, mostly it would just undo a few windows updates.

    Do I have all this correct?

    Thanks again.

  2. One final question — not just for my sake, but for the sake of anyone who later does the same thing I did — transferring ownership for all of “Program Files (x86)” to themselves — and now they’re considering trying to undo that change…

    Is the effort “worth it?” Is it worth taking a couple hours to repair the Windows 8 installation right now, even though nothing is going visibly wrong?

    Thanks again for all the input.

  3. ^^ If I was in your place, I would have left it intact. It should not cause any problem. If you can afford a repair, you should go ahead.

  4. Are there really any repercussions in making yourself the owner of all the files?

    Other than giving someone the access they don’t need when they don’t know what they are doing?

    I mean, if I own it all, I’ve just taken over what I bought, right?

  5. You guys are frigging awesome, because i needed full control to modify files but once i did my computer started going basically nuts, so i read this and was able to save my computer
    Cheers,
    Brady

  6. I changed permissions.
    Great. Now windows will not boot up and I’m going to have to reinstall my os.
    How do I get back to default now that I can’t get back into the computer?

  7. ^^ It might be possible that you changed a folder’s permission to TrustedInstaller but it was required user access to properly run Windows and load Desktop.

    You can repair Windows using setup disc to fix the issue.

  8. Hello guys!
    I encountered similar problem a moment ago on Windows 10, I couldn’t do much, nor could my apps work as none had writing permissions, so without thinking (as I always do) I simply right clicked C:\ and gave full permissions to myself, forgetting about windows folder.
    Thing is, Windows 10 does not have “Owner” tab.
    What you have to do is simply right click folder you want to “give back” to Trusted Installer (in my case C:\Windows, then go to “Security” tab, then click “Advanced” button.

    New windows will appear. Click change in top-left corner, and simply enter:
    “NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller” (without “”, of course :))

    Click check names and text you entered should be replaced with underlined “TrustedInstaller” text. This way you’ll know you’ve done everything right.
    Confirm everything, it should take a couple of seconds until all permissions have been given back and that’s it! Enjoy!

  9. By the way, text you enter goes in a bottom textbox of course, sorry for not pointing that out!

  10. VG can you please tell me how to restore permissions for Dhcp?
    In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TCPIP6 I have Dhcp listed as a group or username but I deleted the key then resored it but I cant restore the Dhcp group.

    How can I do that?
    Thanks.

  11. Thanks for this. Helped restore Trusted Installer as owner on my Win 10 Home after multiple 10016 log errors.

  12. i am facing a problem that i am having a owner s-1-5-21-42768449-2270739434-3444253483-1000. after changing owner i still cant uncheck the “uncrypt contents to save data” option please help as i cant acess all my pictures that i have taken this year. these are very imporant pictures

  13. This procedure does not work in Windows 10 as there is no OWNER tab in the advanced section. How do you restore TrustedInstaller in the Windows 10 registry?

  14. Very clear answer. Thanks so much. I’ve been here and there trying to figure it out and your was the clearest! You’re a good patient teacher! 🙂

  15. In response to Ravi’s request for a command line option:
    icacls “file” /setowner “NT Service\\TrustedInstaller” /T /C

  16. OMFG THANK YOU
    I mean, at first Edit button in advanced settings didnt work for me, but then i followed some instructions in comments and after few manipulations with cmd i could finally use my system32’s advanced security settings, thanks

  17. Thanks good sir/mam!
    Seems I wasn’t the only one messing with my file permissions 😛

  18. Thank You guys for the *.reg file!
    I had 1 TB hdd with windows 10 on it, but got ssd and installed new win10 on it. After that i cant remove the old windows folders, even after i said to new win not to see the old one.
    I was trying all the stuff i found about this Trustedinstaller and how to take ownership of the folders it wont let me delete.
    Thank You one more time!

  19. in the process of working through the million trouble shooting reasons for why a Win 10 update didn’t work, I changed the ownership of the folder Panther (which is in C:Windows) from SYSTEM to myself thinking to change it back & the same thing happened as described with “TrustedInstaller”. Since I had made a few restore points along the way, there were several previous versions of the folder that had the SYSTEM as owner, but it wouldn’t let me restore any of those & rolling back to a restore point didn’t change it back. Will something similar to the instructions given work, and if so, what do I type in? If not, is it going to cause problems?

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