Failed to change owner to "Administrator" for a registry key from "System"

Question

The keys that I am interested are under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\PnpLockdownFiles

These keys give full access to system user, and only read access to administrator. I am logged in administrator account. I am using 2012 R2.

I can change the owner through regedit by

    right click -> Advanced -> Change onwer -> type "Administrator" -> OK -> Apply

Here are the API in c# that I have tried. Both failed as access denied

    key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(test, RegistryKeyPermissionCheck.ReadSubTree, RegistryRights.TakeOwnership);

    RegistrySecurity rs = new RegistrySecurity();
    rs.SetOwner(new NTAccount("Administrator"));// Set the securitys owner to be Administrator

    key.SetAccessControl(rs);

Also tried win32 APIs:

    SetSecurityInfo(getRegistryKeyHandle(key), SE_OBJECT_TYPE.SE_REGISTRY_KEY, SECURITY_INFORMATION.OWNER_SECURITY_INFORMATION, ownerSid, groupSid, dacl, sacl);

Answer 1

Thanks to @HarryJohnston. Your method works.

I first enable SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege, then I'm able to take owner with my code.