Configuring NTFS Permissions using PowerShell

Here are some quick examples on configuring NTFS permissions using PowerShell. The first example is using the takeown.exe and icacls.exe commands driven by PowerShell, and the second example is using the takeown.exe and native Get-Acl and Set-Acl PowerShell cmdlets.

Credits: Thanks to Gary Blok for showing me the Get-Acl and Set-Acl PowerShell cmdlets.

Option #1 – Having PowerShell use takeown.exe and icacls.exe

# Configure folder to change permssions on
$Path = "C:\Demo"

# Optional - Backing up the Access Control Lists (ACLs) 
& icacls.exe @($Path, "/save", "`"C:\Windows\Temp\NTFS.acl`"", "/T")

# Assign yourself as an owner of the folder
& takeown.exe @("/F", $Path, "/R")

# Grant the builtin administrators group full control permissions to the folder
& icacls.exe @($Path, "/grant", "`"BUILTIN\Administrators`":(F)", "/T")

Option #2 – Combining takeown.exe and Native Get-Acl and Set-Acl cmdlets

# Configure folder to change permssions on
$Path = "C:\Demo"

# Assign yourself as an owner of the folder
& takeown.exe @("/F", $Path, "/R")

# Grant the builtin administrators group full control permissions to the folder
$ACL = Get-Acl -Path $Path
$AR = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule("BUILTIN\Administrators", "FullControl", "Allow")
$ACL.SetAccessRule($AR)
Set-Acl -Path $Path -AclObject $ACL