How to Get File Owner Using PowerShell

To get file owner using PowerShell, you can use the Get-Acl or Get-Item cmdlets. These commands retrieve the Access Control List (ACL) of a file or directory and then access the Owner property.

The following method shows how you can do it.

Method 1: Get the file owner using Get-Acl

# specify the path of a file
$filePath = "C:\temp\log\system_log.txt"

# Get the ACL of the file
$fileAcl = Get-Acl -Path $filePath

# Get the file owner of the file
$fileAcl.Owner

This example will display the file owner.

Method 2: Get the file owner using Get-Item

# specify the path of a file
$filePath = "C:\temp\log\system_log.txt"

# Get the file owner
(Get-Item -Path $filePath).GetAccessControl().Owner

This example will return the owner of a file.

The following examples show how to use these methods in practice.

Get File Owner Using Get-Acl in PowerShell

You can use the Get-Acl cmdlet in PowerShell to retrieve the Access Control List (ACL) for a file and then access the Owner property to get the owner of a file.

# specify the path of a file
$filePath = "C:\temp\log\system_log.txt"

# Get the ACL of the file
$fileAcl = Get-Acl -Path $filePath

# Get the file owner of the file
$fileAcl.Owner

Output:

ADT\Admin

In this PowerShell script, the $filePath variable holds the file path. The Get-Acl command uses the -Path variable to specify the $filePath and get the Access Control List (ACL) for a file.

Finally, the Owner property of ACL for a file returns the owner of a file.

How to Get File Owner Using Get-Item in PowerShell

Another way to get file owner in PowerShell is by using the Get-Item cmdlet. This command uses the GetAccessControl() method to get the Access Control List (ACL) and finally accesses its Owner property to get the file owner name.

# specify the path of a file
$filePath = "C:\temp\log\system_log.txt"

# Get the file owner
(Get-Item -Path $filePath).GetAccessControl().Owner

Output:

ADT\Admin

This PowerShell script returns the ownership of a file.

Conclusion

I hope the above article on getting file ownership using PowerShell is helpful to you.

---

Related Articles

File Information & Properties

• PowerShell Get File Properties - File metadata
• PowerShell Get File Extension - Extract extension
• PowerShell Get File Hash - File integrity checking
• PowerShell Get File Version - Version information
• PowerShell Get MD5 Hash - Hash calculation

File Management Operations

• PowerShell List Files - List directory contents
• PowerShell Directory Listing - Navigate directories
• PowerShell Delete All Files - Delete files
• PowerShell Rename Files - Rename files in bulk

Access Control & Security

• PowerShell Check If Registry Key Exists - Registry ACL
• PowerShell Set Registry Value - Set security values

Data Selection & Filtering

• PowerShell Select-Object - Select file properties
• PowerShell Where-Object - Filter files by criteria
• PowerShell ForEach-Object - Process each file
• PowerShell Get-ChildItem Filter - Advanced filtering

Display & Output

• PowerShell Format Table - Format output
• PowerShell Write-Output - Display output
• PowerShell Output to File - Write to files

Control Flow & Logic

• PowerShell If-Else Statement - Conditional logic
• PowerShell For Loops - Loop through files
• PowerShell Try-Catch - Error handling

Variables & Collections

• PowerShell Variables - Store file data
• PowerShell Arrays - Work with file arrays
• PowerShell Hashtables - Store mappings
• PowerShell Add-Member - Add custom properties

Output & Export

• PowerShell Export CSV - Export to CSV
• PowerShell Import CSV - Import from CSV

File Path Operations

• PowerShell Test-Path - Check path existence
• PowerShell Get-Item - Get item objects

Functions & Automation

• PowerShell Functions - Create reusable functions
• PowerShell Measure-Object - Calculate statistics

Comprehensive Guides

• Complete PowerShell Guide - Full PowerShell reference
• Complete PowerShell Tutorial - Comprehensive course