Windows 10: Why cant I sometimes take ownership of some items despite I'M the admin/pc owner

I wish to modify a file/folder, neither power shell nor CMD ran as admin would allow me to take ownership of this file/folder. Locking me out of an item/folder is absurd. It keeps telling me access denied. I own the PC, and I locked out of a file I have on my computer./takeown /f [directory of the file i want to modify]ERROR: Access is denied.why? makes no since, i should be able to modify things that are on my computer. now granted if malware got into my pc thats different. but I as a human being trying to modify something I own, is just rude. If I could switch to linux I would.

:)

 

Ownership Issues

that will not hurt taking ownership, but I would also then look in the list of users on the ownership page and make sure your user account name is there with full permissions. Probably not.

even though you take ownership of an item, you may not be in the list of users with permissions.

first select disable inheritance, then select "ADD" in the list of users, and add your user account the same way you took ownership and select full permissions.

Then administrators may only have select permissions in the list. so after you disable inheritance, delete admins user. then select add again and select admins in the list and select full permissions

restart pc

 

Unknown User as Owner

Hi Bree, thanks for stepping up to address this issue.
As far as I know my External Drive has only been used on my PC.

I could try to implement your suggestion and take Ownership of those Folders.
The "Take Ownership" link is present in my right click menu, but I'm currently logged in with my Microsoft account, so perhaps it would be better if I went Properties --> Security --> Advanced & set the Owner to Administrators, no?!

Although my mind is bugged with a new question now.
If I change the Owner & later on I have to restore a backup (Acronis on a CD) won't I encounter problems then?

 

ownership

To take ownership of a file or folder

Open File Explorer, and then locate the file or folder you want to take ownership of.

Right-click the file or folder, click Properties, and then click the Security tab.

Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.

Click Edit, and then do one of the following:

To change the owner to a user or group that is not listed, click Other users and groups and, in Enter the object name to select (examples), type the name of the user or group, and then click OK.

To change the owner to a user or group that is listed, in the Change owner to box, click the new owner.

(Optional) To change the owner of all subcontainers and objects within the tree, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.