[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Improve Your Windows 7 Registry With 7 Easy Tweaks here

[LiveBrianD]

"Always make sure to Before making any changes to the Windows Registry, you should be sure to back up your important data, as missteps in the Registry could impair your PC or even render it inoperable." What?

[shorty610]

Wow, if anyone tries these and screws up, you will have an unusable computer. BAD idea mucking with the registry if you don't know what you're doing.

[JC2010]

Is not that bad with a registry backup and system backup.

[oldnuke69]

Windows 7 already allows you to open a command prompt in a folder. In Explorer, hold down the shift key, right click on a folder, and select "Open Command Window Here".

[arabold]

Tried to use the take-ownership.reg as you suggested but double clicking it just opened the file - NO PROMPTS TO FOLLOW!

[tonyatn]

Useless informatiom, asking for trouble.

[Ascot]

arabold, on 06 April 2012 - 10:05 AM, said:

Tried to use the take-ownership.reg as you suggested but double clicking it just opened the file - NO PROMPTS TO FOLLOW!

I found the same problem except I first received a warning about trusting the provider of take-ownership.reg. I told it to continue and got an error message "Cannot import C:\Users\[name]\Desktop\take-ownership.reg: The specified file is not a registry script. You can only import binary registry from within the registry editor".

Don't you guys check that your advice actually works? especially when you are getting us to mess with the registry.

This post has been edited by Ascot: 09 April 2012 - 12:28 PM

[JimEssery]

What in the world would make anyone of you think that PCW knows what they are talking about? I'll bet they are just waiting for the count of how many of you out there was stupid enough to screw around with the registry.

[ZipFolder]

Uh, what is my Windows Registry do?

[ironman12]

arabold, on 06 April 2012 - 10:05 AM, said:

Tried to use the take-ownership.reg as you suggested but double clicking it just opened the file - NO PROMPTS TO FOLLOW!

Worked fine for me. What text editor did you use to save the file? And did you copy all of the bold text in the section?

[bwhite2323]

Would you please provide the code for Taking Ownership for Windows XP?

[bwhite2323]

Would you please provide the code to Take Ownership for Windows XP?

[coyote2]

bwhite2323, on 04 July 2012 - 03:26 PM, said:

Would you please provide the code for Taking Ownership for Windows XP?

Good question. The print magazine article failed to even mention this was win7-specific; sheesh.

This post has been edited by coyote2: 07 July 2012 - 11:46 AM

[Warden146]

Worked like a charm. I have an old hard drive that had several files I could not open or move to a new directory until I loaded this little key. Much appreciated PW.

[LaNaStL]

Only on person claims this works! I'm not an expert but should be able to accomplish this if it really works. I've tried opeing Notepad, pasting the script, saving Notepad as a "take-ownership.reg" file but when opening the file, there are no "prompts" to follow - UNLESS I HAVE TO COPY AND PAST EACH CHANGE IN THE REGISTRY! I also tried pasting the text in a Word 2007 file, also saved it as "take-ownership.reg" and got the same as an earlier poster did: "Cannot import C:\Users\[name]\Desktop\take-ownership.reg: The specified file is not a registry script. You can only import binary registry from within the registry editor".

[AZComicG33k]

coyote2, on 07 July 2012 - 11:46 AM, said:

bwhite2323, on 04 July 2012 - 03:26 PM, said:

Would you please provide the code for Taking Ownership for Windows XP?

Good question. The print magazine article failed to even mention this was win7-specific; sheesh.

If you can't even read the title "Improve Your Windows 7 Registry With 7 Easy Tweaks" you probably shouldn't mess with your registry.

[AZComicG33k]

LaNaStL, on 08 July 2012 - 07:49 AM, said:

Only on person claims this works! I'm not an expert but should be able to accomplish this if it really works. I've tried opeing Notepad, pasting the script, saving Notepad as a "take-ownership.reg" file but when opening the file, there are no "prompts" to follow - UNLESS I HAVE TO COPY AND PAST EACH CHANGE IN THE REGISTRY! I also tried pasting the text in a Word 2007 file, also saved it as "take-ownership.reg" and got the same as an earlier poster did: "Cannot import C:\Users\[name]\Desktop\take-ownership.reg: The specified file is not a registry script. You can only import binary registry from within the registry editor".

You have to save it as a .reg file, not a .txt file. The icon should look like a block on page, not a regular text page. Windows 7 allows names with periods so you may have saved it as "take-ownership.reg.txt"

It works fine and I can finally move folders that Win7 refused to release before.

[SidSchweiger]

LaNaStL, on 08 July 2012 - 07:49 AM, said:

Only on person claims this works! I'm not an expert but should be able to accomplish this if it really works. I've tried opeing Notepad, pasting the script, saving Notepad as a "take-ownership.reg" file but when opening the file, there are no "prompts" to follow - UNLESS I HAVE TO COPY AND PAST EACH CHANGE IN THE REGISTRY! I also tried pasting the text in a Word 2007 file, also saved it as "take-ownership.reg" and got the same as an earlier poster did: "Cannot import C:\Users\[name]\Desktop\take-ownership.reg: The specified file is not a registry script. You can only import binary registry from within the registry editor".

It works perfectly, BUT:

1) When you copy-and-paste the posted text, you have to include the line "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" (without the quotes) as the first line in the .REG file, otherwise it won't be recognized as a registry file.

2) You need to edit the copied-and-pasted text to eliminate the extraneous lines and spaces. PCWorld dropped the ball on that one.

3) You MUST use a non-formatting text editor like Notepad to write a .REG file. Word won't work because it adds formatting information (which the user normally doesn't see).

[justfarley]

Just took ownership of my newly installed copy of WIN 7 PRO. Thank you so much for the heads up here, the frustration was driving me nuts!
Be-well