If you are not able to rename a file and getting ownership issue, maybe that file is being protected by TustedInstaller. Learn how to delete or rename TrustedInstaller protected files and get ownership to make any kind of change.

Whenever you get an error message like

You need permission to perform this action.

You require permission from TrustedInstaller to make changes to this file.

You should know that the file you are going working with, is being protected by TrustedInstaller. Just like the name, it can protect your system tools and files from renaming.

How to Rename TrustedInstaller Protected Files and Get Ownership

This is very easy and not much time consuming as well. You do not have to use any third party software to get ownership of any file in Windows.

• At first, select the file that you want to get ownership for.
• After that, right click on that file/folder and go to Properties. Head over to Security tab. Here, you will get Advanced option/button. Click on that.

• Now, you can find all the users and their respective permissions. By default, Full Control permission should be assigned to TrustedInstaller. Anyway, hit the Change button that is positioned next to TrustedInstaller.
• Click on Find Now button to get all the users. Select one user account and hit the OK button.
• Now, again open Properties, go to Security tab, select Edit.
• Now, select the user and give it permissions by making the tick in the respective checkbox.

That’s it. This is how you can get ownership of any file and rename or delete that from Windows machine.

Take Ownership of file and delete TrustedInstaller protected file

If you do not want to go through all the steps above, you can follow this simple guide to taking ownership of any file in Windows. Open Notepad and paste the following code,

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"HasLUAShield"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""
"Position"="middle"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /c /l & pause"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /c /l & pause"
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"HasLUAShield"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""
"Position"="middle"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t /c /l /q & pause"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t /c /l /q & pause"
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"HasLUAShield"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""
"Position"="middle"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /c /l & pause"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /c /l & pause"
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"HasLUAShield"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""
"Position"="middle"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t /c /l /q & pause"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t /c /l /q & pause"
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas]
"HasLUAShield"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
"IsolatedCommand"="\"%1\" %*"

After that, click on File >> Save as. Now, enter any name with .reg extension. For example, if you give it a name as abcd, it should be like abcd.reg. After saving the file, double-click on this and follow the screen option. After installing this script, right-click on any file and select Take Ownership option from right click menu.

That’s it! This is as simple as said.Install Ownership App to

Install Ownership App to Get “Take Ownership” Button

Similar to the trick mentioned above, you can get the same button in your right-click context menu by making use of a third party tool. This is called Ownership, which is available for free, and this is very easy to use. Just download and run it on your PC.

Microsoft always tries to take care of the security of Windows users. Just for that, they have been developing a better firewall and safety shield that can help you to get rid of unauthorized access. All the system files and folder are very much protected so that anybody cannot delete or play with them, which will eventually aid the admin. But, sometimes, we need to do certain things such as rename TrustedInstall protected files or get ownership of protected system files. At such times, you will have to go through a detailed guide like this about the security of Windows.

Now, let’s assume that any malware or administrator has blocked your Registry Editor. At such moment, if you can rename the regedit.exe file, there is a chance to get it working again. But, as a regedit.exe file in located in C:\Windows folder, it is protected by TrustedInstaller.

Or, there may have any reason to do different things, but if you want to rename or delete certain things, you will have to take ownership of those files. By default, the ownership belongs to TrustedInstaller. Therefore, you have to switch the ownership. After that, you would be able to rename or delete anything from the system protected folders.

Hope these tricks would be helpful for you. You can try any of the aforementioned tricks. All of them are working and work with almost all versions of Windows.