How to Take Full Control or Ownership of Windows Registry Keys

There are some critical registry entries where users are not allowed to modify any value and shouldn’t either. However, if you still want to make changes to these registry entries then you will need to first take Full Control or Ownership of these keys. This post is exactly about taking ownership and modifying its value according to your use. You may get the following prompt:

Error Creating Key, Cannot create key, You do not have the requisite permission to create a new key.

How to Take Full Control or Ownership of Windows Registry Keys

How to Take Full Control or Ownership of Windows 10 Registry Keys

Now even your administrator account doesn’t have the necessary permissions to edit the system-protected registry keys. In order to modify system-critical registry keys, you need to take full ownership of that particular registry key. So without wasting any time let’s see how to take Full Control or Ownership of Windows Registry Keys with the help of below-listed guide.

Note: Make sure to create a restore point as well as Backup and Restore the Registry, just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: Through Registry Editor Directly

1.Press Windows Key + R then type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.

Run command regedit

2.Navigate to particular registry key you want to take ownership of:

For example, in this case, let’s take the WinDefend key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinDefend

3.Right-click on WinDefend and select Permissions.

Right click on WinDefend and select Permissions

4.This will open Permissions for the WinDefend key, just click Advanced at the bottom.

Click Advanced at the bottom of permissions window

5.On Advanced Security Settings window, click on Change next to Owner.

On Advanced Security Settings window, click on Change next to Owner

6.Click on Advanced on Select User or Group window.

Click Advanced on Select User or Group window

7.Then click on Find Now and select your administrator account and click OK.

8.Again click OK to add your administrator account to Owner group.

Click OK to add your administrator account to Owner Group

9.Checkmark “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” then click Apply followed by OK.

Checkmark Replace owner on subcontainers and objects

10.Now on the Permissions window select your administrator account and then make sure to check mark Full Control (Allow).

Checkmark Full Control for Administrators and click OK

11.Click Apply followed by OK.

12.Next, go back to your registry key and modify its value.

Method 2: Through Powershell Script

Taking ownership of a registry key via PowerShell involves these steps:

1. Press Ctrl + X keys and select Windows Powershell (Admin) from the menu.

2. Run the following code by replacing “HKLM:\Software\YourRegistryKeyPath” with the actual path of the registry key you want to take ownership of:

# Define the path to the registry key you want to take ownership of
$keyPath = "HKLM:\Software\YourRegistryKeyPath"

# Get the registry key object
$key = Get-Item -LiteralPath $keyPath

# Take ownership of the key
$rule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryAccessRule ("Administrators","FullControl","Allow")
$acl = $key.GetAccessControl()
$acl.SetOwner([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]"Administrators")
$acl.SetAccessRule($rule)
$key.SetAccessControl($acl)

Recommended for you: Fix Registry Editing Has Been Disabled by Your Administrator Error

That’s it you have successfully learned how to Take Full Control or Ownership of Windows Registry Keys but if you still have any questions regarding this article then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.

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