How to take ownership of a Windows File

Last updated on April 17th, 2023 at 12:35 am

If you have a stubborn file that you cannot delete or move, then you will need to take ownership of the file to allow you to carry out any action on it.

To do this is a pretty simple process, just follow our step by step guide below to carry this out and enable you to take control back of your files!

Instructions

First of all, you will require an elevated command prompt. So, click the Start button and type in CMD which should bring up the command prompt option in your start menu, instead of left clicking the command prompt, right click on it and select Run as Administrator:

This will then open up an elevated command prompt as you can see from the top of the window:

Then type in the following commands, hitting the Enter key after each one:

• takeown /F “PATH TO FILE”
• icacls “PATH TO FILE” /grant administrators:F

You will now have full ownership of the file stated and you should now be able to go ahead with changing or deleting the file.

Comments

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