Vista: How To Take Ownership of a System File

Contributor Icon Contributed by Rob Rogers  
Tag Icon Tagged: Microsoft Vista  

If you are trying to tweak or modify your Vista system, you will run into a barrier when it comes to replacing or changing system files. You can take ownership of the file and then grant your username full control of the file. After you have made your changes and/or modifications, you can then remove the permissions.


First you will need to access an elevated command prompt, to do this:

1. Click the Start button.

2. Click All Programs.

3. Go into Accessories.

4. Right-click on Command Prompt.

5. Select Run as administrator.

6. When the UAC Prompt appears, click Continue.

Once you have your elevated command prompt, follow these steps:

For our example, we are going to use the Bubbles screensaver file (Bubbles.scr)

1. At the command prompt, input takeown /f filepath (takeown /f c:\windows\system32\Bubbles.scr).

2. Press Enter on the keyboard.

3. A message will be displayed that this completed successfully.

4. Now input icacls filepath /grant yourusername:f (icacls c:\windows\system32\Bubbles.scr /grant shamanstears:f).

5. A message will be displayed that this completed successfully.

You will now be able to modify or replace the file. When you are done, simply remove the permissions to keep the file secure.

 

21 Comments -


  1. Serizzim said on December 1, 2008

    Thank you a lot, solved my issue. And yes, it does work on whole folders.

  2. Hassan said on December 2, 2008

    Thanks that works.

  3. ray said on January 9, 2009

    it doenst work with system32

  4. Tim said on January 15, 2009

    it won’t accept my username

  5. Trevv said on January 19, 2009

    It won’t accept username
    Invalid parameter “UserName:F”

  6. Uwe said on January 21, 2009

    hi,
    that doesn´t work for the file mscoree.dll in folder windows32

    regards
    Uwe

  7. Uwe said on January 21, 2009

    Hi,
    do you have an idea to install open office under Vista?
    Someone told me that I have to rename the file mscoree.dll in folder windows32.
    But that doesn´t work with the idea above.

    regards
    Uwe

  8. Mike said on January 25, 2009

    Thank you so much.

    I was getting to the point of dispair with not being granted access to the root of my F: drive.

    Worked perfectly

  9. calv7n said on January 28, 2009

    Hi, thanks very much for the tip. I’ve been able to rename my mscoree.dll folder in system 32 (but it didn’t solve my problem unfortunately!). I’d like to remove the premissions now, but I don’t how to do it. Can anybody help? Thank you in advance

  10. Leito said on February 20, 2009

    Thanks for that tip, it works well on my Vista and I’m glad for that (:
    But can you give us the commande to remove permissions?

  11. Leito said on February 20, 2009

    I just found how to take off permissions :

    icacls filepath /deny yourusername:f (=take off the ‘grant’)

  12. Anonymous said on August 10, 2009

    I tried the above instructions, but the response I got when trying to get it to “grant” was the following:

    user name: No mapping between accounts names and security ID’s was done.
    Successfully processed 0 files; Failed processing 1 files.

    What does that mean and how can I correct this?

  13. Anonymous said on August 23, 2009

    i tried to do it but all it said after i`ve typed the file name in to the window it said cant associate the file go to set association control panel and select , etc

  14. Chuck said on September 28, 2009

    Everyone who offers this guidance seems to ignore a really fundamental question. Is “takeown” permanent? What about restoring file ownership to its original state when you’re done modifying, especially for system files? How do you do that?

  15. Stephanie said on October 14, 2009

    what happens if you can’t locate you file path? You can trace it through Start then Computer then C: Drive then Program Files then Common Files then Microsoft Shared then etc…
    But when my screen says: takeown /f c:programfilescommonfilesmicrosoftshared……….
    it comes up with “path not found” What am I doing wrong?

  16. Anonymous said on January 15, 2010

    Windows says there is no such command “icalcs”

    But the previous command (takeown /f) worked.

    Help!

  17. Name said on January 17, 2010

    @Furry321 icalcs should be spelled icacls.

  18. Anonymous said on March 19, 2010

    First use icacls to back up the perms. Then perform the work. Use icacls to restore the perms when you’re finished

  19. GrannyGeek said on March 23, 2010

    I was able to add this permission and change my filename. But I don’t know how to remove the permission again…

  20. Patrick said on August 10, 2010

    when i open command promnt it dosent let me go to any other fine other that the files in system32 i want to find a file in program files

  21. Lena0581 said on November 17, 2010

    didn´t work for mscoree.dll. how do i remove the permissions? help please!

 

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