In the basic case you go to settings and change permissions.
In the more typical case for os modifications, you go to that tab, open advanced properties, change the owner account by typing in “everyone” or your account name by hand, saving, closing reopening the advanced security settings, probably disable inheritance then create a new permission entry.
In the most extreme case, where you change files belonging to something critical like windows defender or edge, you can’t.
The only way I am aware of is booting into an older windows install iso, or a live linux iso, then performing the modifications there.
Disclaimer: I have not done this on windows 11 yet, but I can’t imagine the process got simplified.
Windows has a lot of systems that allow some more complicated modifications. Those are often unnecessarily obfuscated, the registry for example doesn’t have to be a weird custom database, it could have been part of the filesystem or at least a more standard database format. Windows will sometimes bite you with weird sketchy systems breaking expectations, and this tends to become inevitable when you try to change stuff Microsoft has decided to remove consumer choice on.
If Edge and the account push were as easy to avoid as learning how to take basic file ownership, we might not be where we are now (i.e. on Linux).
In the basic case you go to settings and change permissions.
In the more typical case for os modifications, you go to that tab, open advanced properties, change the owner account by typing in “everyone” or your account name by hand, saving, closing reopening the advanced security settings, probably disable inheritance then create a new permission entry.
In the most extreme case, where you change files belonging to something critical like windows defender or edge, you can’t.
The only way I am aware of is booting into an older windows install iso, or a live linux iso, then performing the modifications there.
Disclaimer: I have not done this on windows 11 yet, but I can’t imagine the process got simplified.
Windows has a lot of systems that allow some more complicated modifications. Those are often unnecessarily obfuscated, the registry for example doesn’t have to be a weird custom database, it could have been part of the filesystem or at least a more standard database format. Windows will sometimes bite you with weird sketchy systems breaking expectations, and this tends to become inevitable when you try to change stuff Microsoft has decided to remove consumer choice on.
If Edge and the account push were as easy to avoid as learning how to take basic file ownership, we might not be where we are now (i.e. on Linux).