Take ownership of everything

Question

"Take ownership of everything" resumes it pretty much.

I am the only user (and Admin) in my Win 8.1 Core 64 bit system and I need to be able to change the registry and all files and folders on my system on EVERY drive, internal or external (the latter whether NTFS or FAT).

I went through the procedure of taking ownership of an external USB drive (to which the drive letter G got assigned) and all went fine, then I unplugged the flashdrive and I plugged a new one that also got the G letter (I was optimist/naive enough to believe that the previous procedure would have sufficed, but apparently I was wrong!). Do I need to go through all that again for every single USB device I plug in??? Really???

Now, while I see the necessity of tightening security across the system for the average user (I do not want to start a debate on that) I would really like to have the chance to just use my own computer the way I want.

Can somebody please provide a simple and straightforward method that can PERMANENTLY enable me to do that without having to click on allow this or permit that every time I just want to add a single vowel to a .txt file?

Apologies for my excessive ranting

Thanks

Solution

Well, taking all files' ownership can be a time consuming task and you will probably encounter some files and folders which are not allowed to change their ownership to other user accounts. I have a workaround for you problem (Tested on windows 7 X64, NOT sure if it works on Win8).

1. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx. In this link, you need to download PsTools and extract the file named psexec.exe. (It's a legit Microsoft website so no worry about virus.)
2. Run a command prompt as Administrator, then end your explorer.exe in your task manager.
3. Type this command in your CMD window: psexec.exe -i -s explorer.exe
4. You should see your desktop is back but not necessarily your previous desktop. You can see in task manager that you are now logged in as SYSTEM! This should definitely give you enough privilege for all the operations you want to perform.

BE CAREFUL! SYSTEM is a very powerful account(Even more powerful than Administrator) and You should ALWAYS make backups before making any changes.

Comments

[Eta Beta]

Thanks for your suggestion. But during my every day computer life, should I need to edit anything on, say a USB flash drive, do I need to do that procedure to get logged in as SYSTEM? Is there anything a bit more practical? Unless I understood what you meant.

[Eta Beta]

Thanks RR, I have already tried that on a USB flashdrive. In Win 8.1 (apparently) this not working :( and when I click on the Take Ownership context menu for that drive letter, I get an error that lasts only a fraction of a second so I cannot read what it is... GRRRRRRRRRR

[Freelanzer]

Unfortunately, yes. You have to do it whenever a new flash drive is plugged in. I am not quite sure why you want to do that though since Administrator has already given you nearly all privileges you need to access most of the files.

[Eta Beta]

Is it actually possible to take ownership of the entire USB flashdrive (all folders, subfolders and files) by right-clicking the Take Ownership context menu of the specific drive? Does that work on your system?

[Remus Rigo]

i'll look into it