How to allow assignment of Ownership without being a Local Administrator

Issue:

When a user attempts to assign Ownership to a file or folder the following error message may appear.

 

Unable to set new owner on foldername.  You do not have the Restore privilege required to set this user/group as owner.

 

Or

 

An error occurred applying security information to:  Foldername\filename.

This security ID may not be assigned as the owner of this object.

 

Cause:

The user does not have the “Restore files and directories” user right.  By default only Administrators and Backup Operators of the local computer have this user right.

 

Solution:

1)      Add the user or group to the local Backup Operators group

Or

2)      Assign the Restore files and directories user right to the user or group via the Local Security Policy MMC.

 

More Information:

Ownership Overview

Every object has an owner, whether on an NTFS volume or in Active Directory. The owner of the object controls how permissions are set, and to whom permissions are granted.

 

By default, in Windows Server 2003, the owner is the creator of the object. If the creator of an object is a member of the Administrators group, the Administrators group is the owner. The owner can always change permissions on an object, even when denied all access to the object.

 

Ownership can be taken by the following methods

• Any user with the Take ownership of files or other objects user right.  By default, the Administrators group is given the Take ownership of files or other objects user right, but it can be assigned to any user.
• An administrator who wants to change permissions on files they do not own or have permissions to must begin by taking ownership of the file or folder.
  • Any user or any group who has the Take ownership permission on the object in question, can take ownership.
  • A user who has the Restore files and directories user right can take ownership.

 

Ownership can be transferred in the following ways:

• The current owner can grant the Take ownership permission to another user, allowing that user to take ownership at any time. The user must actually take ownership to complete the transfer.
• An Administrator can take ownership.
• A user who has the Restore files and directories user right can assign ownership to any user or group.
• Ownership can not be transferred by overwriting file with a new version.  However, by deleing the current file and creating a new file the new creator becomes the owner…of the new file.