How to get full control of a registry key (as Admin) if the access is denied?

[NoDiggity]

Hi,

I am currently battling with a registry permission. If anyone can help, it would be great.
What's the deal:

I am running an all the way smooth Windows 10 Home system. To make it perfect I need to eliminate a little error and follow these troubleshooting instructions to do so: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-distributedcom-error-10016-windows/

The first step of the 2. method in this troubleshooting guide says I have to grant "full control" permission for one registry entry: \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{key} for Administrators group which I myself actually belong to as I am the one and only system administrator. Unfortunately and curiously as Windows always is, I am of course unable to save the changes I am trying to make, because I keep getting an error message by Windows Security saying: "Unable to save changes on {key} Access denied". Don't say the guys coded this that way weren't smart asses. Anyway. Currently only "TrustedInstaller" and "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" users do have the full control permission on that specific key.

So I am wondering if there is a working solution to get it done, especially as there is no mention about denied access issues in the above troubleshooting article?! The only workaround I know is no smart one - to take over the ownership of the key in the first place and save the changes in the second. However, there is a big drawback associated with this method - once I take the ownership of the key I can't delegate the ownership back to its origin TrustedInstaller anymore. So this is a very dirty solution if it is one at all, because the permission upgrade is intended, but the ownership change is not!


Any idea how to grant the full control without taking the ownership of the key?

 

[kilo]

There's a bunch of run as trusted installer github pages. I don't know of a built in method within windows.

 

[NoDiggity]

Thanks! Can you get more detailed/specific regarding your approach, actually I only understood the second sentence.

 

[GerKNG]

Normally you change the owner by adding your username or if logged in into your MS account your email address to the"owners".
Then you add it again to the "Principal" and give yourself full access.
At least that's how it works for most of the restricted MS folders.

 

[NoDiggity]

I know how to change the owner, but it's not what I am asking for - I can't go the way to change the owner for the reason that it is first - not my goal and secondly I'm not gonna make it this way back. As I said - if you change the owner you can't undo that. On top of that, the next troubleshooting step fails anyway if I change the owner. So I ask you for a workaround. Nobody said it would be easy one.

 

[kilo]

Thanks! Can you get more detailed/specific regarding your approach, actually I only understood the second sentence.

I'm not sure the exact method, but this allows you to run a cmd as trusted installer. Once there you can use reg.exe like

Reg add <something>

This would require some research on the exact modification you want. Here is a reg commands list.

You might get lucky and run regedit from the cmd once run as trusted installer.

As always, registry editing is caveat emptor and you need to export before editing to be safe.

 

[NoDiggity]

RunAsTrustedInstaller is a great tool, it does what it promises and it does exactly what I need! Jackpot.
@kilo : Thank you bro!