Sometimes ownership permissions get screwed up on directories and files in Microsoft Windows, denying you and your applications access to multiple files and sub folders.

This recently happened to my Music folder. The Zune software didn’t have permission to read any of my music, leaving me stuck playing 30 second clips from the Zune store. I didn’t really feel motivated to manually go in and fix permissions for all the artist folders in my Music directory. Luckily I stumbled across a useful registry hack that fixed all my woes with a simple right click.

Warning: Make sure you know what you are doing before messing with your Windows registry. You can seriously screw up your computer if you destroy the registry. Make sure you have recent backups, restore Windows media, and most importantly you know what the hell you are doing. USE OF THESE FILES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE ANY FILES ATTACHED TO THIS POST DOES TO YOUR COMPUTER, YOUR WINDOWS INSTALL, YOUR DOCUMENTS, YOUR FILES, YOUR HOME, YOUR LIFE.

ALSO: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF YOUR ENTIRE C: drive (or entire drive where Windows 7 is installed).

Having fully understood the consequences of the above statement, let’s proceed:

1. Download the following zip file: Take_Ownership.zip

2. Run a virus scan on the file by right clicking on the file (most security applications).

3. If satisfied the file is safe to use, open the file and extract its contents.

4. You may want to run further virus scans on the two .reg files that were extracted in step 3.

5. To add the “Take Ownership” option to your Windows dialog menus double click the “Add_Take_Ownership.reg” file. Your registry will be modified to enable the option.

6. Now manevoeur to the Windows folder containing the files/directories you wish to fix permissions on. Right click on the folder name and look for the “Take Ownership” option as shown below:

7. Choose “Take Ownership”, give Administrator permissions and a DOS prompt window will open. The DOS prompt will scroll quickly through all the folders and files it needs to fix permissions on, before automatically closing when complete.

If you wish to remove the “Take Ownership” option from your Windows menus, use the “Remove_Take_Ownership.reg” file to reverse the changes you made in step 5 above.