Taking Ownership of System Files in Windows

In newer Windows versions such as Windows Vista, Windows 7, etc, you often cannot delete, modify, or replace files in directories like System32. This can be easily fixed by taking ownership of these directories and giving your user full permissions.

For example, to gain control over System32:

takeown /f %windir%\System32
icacls %windir%\System32 /grant %username%:F