[Guide] How to Take Ownership (Permission) of a Registry Key in Windows?

Many times we post Windows tutorials which require taking ownership and assign full permission on a particular registry key. Although we provide detailed steps to do this task in all our tutorials, some people find it difficult to take ownership of registry keys.

Recently when we received an email from one of our reader asking how to assign a user full permission on a registry key in Windows, we decided to create a dedicated article about it.

So today in this article, we’ll post a step-by-step guide with screenshots which will teach you how to take ownership and grant full permission and control on a registry key. It’ll become useful if you are trying to delete a key in Registry and getting an error such as “Cannot delete key: Error while deleting key“.

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So without wasting time, lets start the tutorial:

UPDATE: Also check out new methods to take ownership and grant full permissions on Registry keys from command-line:

[Windows Tip] Take Ownership (Permission) of Registry Keys from Command Line

1. Type regedit in RUN or start menu searchbox and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to the desired registry key, right-click on it and select “Permissions…” option.

Select_Permissions_on_Registry_Key.png

3. It’ll open a new dialog box. Click on “Advanced” button.

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Change_Advanced_Permissions_on_Registry_Key.png

For Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7:

Go to “Owner” tab, select your username and click on Apply button. If you also want to take ownership of the sub-key, enable the option “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects”.

Take_Ownership_of_Registry_Key.png

PS: If you want to get permission on all sub-keys, enable following 2 options in “Permissions” tab:

  • Include inheritable permissions from this object’s parent
  • Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object

If you are not a Windows 8 or later OS user, jump to Step 4.

For Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10 and later:

Click on “Change” button near “TrustedInstaller” as shown in following image:

Change_Owner_Windows_8_Registry_Key.png

It’ll open new dialog box. Now type your username and click on “Check Names” button. It’ll automatically convert the username to correct format.

Set_Owner_Windows_8_Registry_Key.png

Now click on OK button.

Now select “Replace owner on the subcontainers and objects” checkbox and click on OK button.

4. Now select your username in first dialog box and check the “Allow” checkbox given for “Full Control” option.

Take_Full_Control_on_Registry_Key.png

5. That’s it. Click on Apply and OK buttons and you’ll now have full permission on the registry key.

Also check:

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

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

Published in: Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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. Thanks mate. Read loads of rubbish about removing ‘yourfiledownloader’ knew the real problem was taking ownership of registry keys in W8 but this was the first clear article on achieving this.
    Well done

  2. That’s a very nice, clear explanation, but there’s something about my computer that prevents the instructions from working anyway. When I click “OK” at the end of step 3, I don’t get the dialog box shown in your step 4. Instead, I am returned to the “Advanced Security Settings for XXX” dialog: If I click “OK” or “Apply” there, a pop-up says “Unable to set new owner on XXX. Access is denied.” This happens regardless of whether I’m logged onto my Win 8.1 Pro machine as a domain admin or a local admin.

    The only clue I can find is that Principals listed on the “Advanced Security Settings” dialog are generally on the local machine while I can enter only domain users on the “Select User, Computer, Service Account, or Group” dialog. However, that doesn’t really seem to be the answer because I can’t add a registry value even when I log in as a local admin, and even though the dialogs show the local administrators as having both ownership and full control.

    Do you have any idea what other security setting or error might be interfering?

    Thanks.

  3. hello sir VG,

    how can I restore my setting, back to TrustedInstaller?. im using windows 8.1

  4. Mr. VG,

    Is it ok ill repair it to the Service Center? because my Mobile Applications is “Forcing to close” when I tried to open them. after I Change my TrustedInstaller.

    Tnx..

  5. hey,
    i wanted to change my language to English ,its fine for everything but on my lock screen and date is displays in Hindi,so i visited the following site

    https://www.askvg.com/how-to-change-or-customize-day-name-date-and-time-format-on-windows-8-lock-screen/

    but i was getting an error saying “Cannot edit TimeFormat: Error writing the value’s new contents,so i read the comments over there someone had the same problem and was told to visit

    https://www.askvg.com/guide-how-to-take-ownership-permission-of-a-registry-key-in-windows/

    to take the owner ship ,i also did the same as said and again tried to change the time format, still not working..could you please help out.
    and i have change my language to en-IN as default and removed the prev hi-IN

  6. The instructions are clear and consistent with my experience but I have not yet had success on Win 8.1 Pro.

    As others have reported taking ownership or applying full control to some keys is met with an Access Denied message and so far I have not been able to get past this wall.

    I am trying to reset the Type parameter from 0x00000020 to 0x00000010 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\gpscv to correct a failure to load Group Policy Access error, which apparently has resulted from a failed security patch.

    Has anyone found a way around this very annoying ‘security’ block on getting access to the registry?

  7. Hi VG,

    Click on “Change” button near “TrustedInstaller” as shown in following image:

    Instead of ‘trustedinstaller’, mine (Win10 home version) shows ‘System’ next to the “Change”.
    I still continued anyway, and put my usename (PC name) it does not work..shows an error message.

    How do I fix this?

    Thanks,

    Jay.

  8. These steps aren’t accurate for windows 10 Pro.

    When you go into advanced permissions, hit change, you can put your name in, hit OK, and your name shows up at the top as the owner. However, your name doesn’t appear in the list of permission entries in the Advanced Security Settings for XXXX window, nor does it appear in the Permissions for XXXX window. So step 4 doesn’t work on Win 10 pro, and the changes don’t get saved after reboot because you can’t take control.

  9. Thanks alot for this guide, I’ve searched everywhere and this place offers the best explanation. I’m on Win 10 Enterprise, and everything works perfectly.

  10. This works on my desktop, but not my laptop. Desktop has Windows 10 Pro. Laptop has home. I get “Access denied” on step 12 on my laptop.

  11. Jason
    These steps aren’t accurate for windows 10 Pro.
    When you go into advanced permissions, hit change, you can put your name in, hit OK, and your name shows up at the top as the owner. However, your name doesn’t appear in the list of permission entries …

    Take from their admin as it is you! [just did it and it worked]
    thanks askvg

  12. its not worked in win 10, “unable to save permission changes on client. acces denied”
    thanks sir VG

  13. I get to step #4

    4. Now select your username in first dialog box and check the “Allow” checkbox given for “Full Control” option.

    Then I click apply and a pop box display stating
    “Unable to save permission changes on DefaultmediaCost. Access is denied

    “DefaultmediaCost” isd the name of the registry key

  14. IT WORKS, in a domain environment as well, as long as you boot up the machines in safemode and ensure inherit permission is enabled when you take control of the grace period permissions.

    Work, Works, Workable

  15. Well thank you so much! after going through every misleading article, yours finally helped me fix the whole problem with installing Adobe Acrobat Reader!

  16. Thank you very much but isn’t POSSIBLE to just give us one file that does the whole job?

    And without needing to master ownership issues?

    We can run Regedit with administrator privileges if need.

    The thing is, why does everything need to be so absurdly complicated?

    BTW, I’m getting errors just trying to use the .reg files as is.

    tkx, greg

  17. I got stuck on this guide until I had a lightbulb moment: When you search for regedit, you first need to right-click and select “Run As Administrator”. Then you (hopefully) won’t get the ‘access denied’ pop-up when you try to change owners of the registry key which you’re attempting to change.

    It wasn’t stated in the guide, probably a simple oversight. The above worked for me at least on Windows 7 x64.

    Cheers~

  18. This isn’t true at all, even a joke for people who get unable to set new owner properties. What kind of a idol are we talking about now?

  19. Hello,
    I have followed VG’s tutorial to take ownership and grant full permission and control on a registry key (679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}\ShellFolder) to remove the Quick Access icon. I don’t have much experience in Regediting (if there is such a word !) and thought I had got it right, but got the message – Unable to Save permission changes on ShellFolder. Access is denied.

    What have I done wrong ? Perhaps people like me who need a lot of hand holding shouldn’t attempt something so complicated !!

    I’m using Windows 10 by the way.

    Thank you,
    Kedric Reason

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