Run programs as administrator in Windows Vista
Most programs recognize the new User Account Control (UAC) security model in Windows Vista. However, in order for this to work properly, the program must be marked by the developer (or identified by Windows Vista) as an program that requires administrative rights.
You are likely to run into some older programs that aren’t properly marked. So Vista provides a few ways to run a program as an administrator right off the bat.
Run a program as administrator from the Search box
As you probably know, you can use the new Search box in the Windows Vista Start Menu the same way you used the Run command in Windows XP (plus, it does a whole lot more). To run a program as an administrator from the Search box, type the command (such as CMD for the command prompt) and then press Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
Run a program as administrator from the graphical interface
You can also run a program as administrator right from a program icon. Instead of double-clicking the program icon to launch it, right-click the icon and choose Run as Administrator from the shortcut menu.
Set a program to always run as administrator
If you have a program that you run frequently, you can set the program to always run as administrator. To do this, use the following steps:
- Right-click the program icon and click Properties.
- On the Property sheet, click the Compatibility tab.
- Under Privilege Level, select the Run this program as an administrator check box, and then click OK.
Bonus Tip: If you work in the command prompt a lot, right-click the Command Prompt shortcut on your Start menu and click Properties. On the property sheet, click Advanced. In the Advanced Properties dialog box that opens, click Run As Administrator. When you use the shortcut to open the command prompt, UAC will prompt you for administrative priveleges.
Running VPC on Windows Vista…
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It is not possible to set the compatibility mode for cmd as you denoted in this article. On the property page you will get a message like,”Compatibility modes cannot be set to this page as it is the part of the version of windows.” and also the option for changing will be greyed out.So,before publishing the article always try with the steps and later publish it.
Thanks & Regards
Mohan.
Thanks, Mohan. Nice catch. Looks like they changed it since beta. I updated it with the proper instructions.
Hello all,
When i am under the compatibility tab to run as administrator the option to do so is grayed out. Why is this? and how can i fix it? Yes im logged on as administrator and iv tried the run as administrator option under the shortcut tab it didnt work…
Someone please help if you can.
-Corey
“It is not possible to set the compatibility mode for cmd as you denoted in this article. On the property page you will get a message like, â€Compatibility modes cannot be set to this page as it is the part of the version of windows.†and also the option for changing will be greyed out.”
Create a shortcut, and press the ‘Advanced’ button in the shortcut’s properties. There you can check a ‘run as administrator’ box.
how can i set “cmd” to run as administrator without having to change UAC and rebooting. cntrl+shift+enter does not seem to work (home premium vista) or alternatively can you please suggest how can i create an icon for “cmd” and change the properties to run as administrator.
regards
Create a shortcut to the Command Prompt (the easiest way is just to copy the one from the Start menu). Open the property sheet for the shortcut. On the Shortcut tab, click Advanced. There’s an option for Run as Administrator.
When you run it, you’ll get the UAC prompt, but you will be at cmd as administrator.
How to set this ‘Run this program as administrator’ privilege to application, through coding (in vc++)?
check box for ‘Run this program as an administrator’ is disable, how to make it enable?
If the “Run this program as an administrator” check box is disabled or greyed out, then UAC is disabled. Re-enabling UAC corrects this.
wow, I was trying to figure out why the run as administrator option was greyed out on a shortcut to an app i use and I thought this article would be helpful, but it seems like youre all more concerned with running the command prompt as administrator…How about helping with the issue, instead of arguing symantics.
Nobody is arguing semantics. It is important to get the steps right. And the command prompt is a common application to want to run as an admin.
As cheezeweeze said, one possibility is that UAC is disabled. But there are other reasons that the Run This Program As An Administrator command might be disable. These reasons include:
* the program doesn’t require administrative privileges to run. No need to set it if you don’t need it.
* you are not logged in to an administrative account
* or the program is blocked from always running elevated.
This is raising the dead, but what the heck.
IF your admin box is grayed out, you can still set it to run as admin by right clicking the shortcut, going to properties and clicking the advanced button at the bottom of the general tab. From there, click “Run as admin…” and party on.
I meant the Shortcut tab. Opps
Anyone know how to disable the need for vista to use the “run as admin” option completely? That’s why my user is in the Admin group. The trouble I’m having is that my context menu commands (right-click menu) won’t work. It’s retarded that I have to open a file compression utility program and them navigate to a file or folder just to make compressed file. (when the right-click menu is 20 time more efficient.) My UAC has been off since day 2 of using vista) How do I turn this off. For the record, my only complaints about vista have come as a result of dealing with the added security B.S. -thanks in advance for any help.
I’ve made some handy .CMD (and/or .BAT) files to help me do stuff like NET SHARE etc…
However, when I click properties->compatibility on the files, the administrator-checkbox is grayed out… For example, “NET SHARE C$ /D” does not work in normal command prompt, but if I open up an administrative command prompt it works just fine.
However, I’d like to run the above mentioned command and similar commands by just easilly clicking on a file instead of opening up a command prompt.
Should I just scrap my CMD/BAT utility files, and succumb to the evilness of Vista or is there any way to make Vista run CMD/BAT files in administrative mode? After all, they’re MY files and this is MY computer… I’ve tried changing the Ownership of the files and taking the ownership to my personal account, and I’ve double checked that my account IS a member of the admin group, and the (insert insulting adjective here) Vista does not still allow me to run the CMD/BAT files as administrator without right-clicking them and selecting “Run as admin”. But I’d just want to be able to double-click them and roll with it… or better yet, I’ve added them to my PATH variable and in XP was able to run them straight from the Run-dialog. But noooooooo, not in Vista anymore, nooooooo… Snif, sorry about the rant, but this UAC nonsense is getting out of hand when the Owner of the Computer cannot control the Computer anymore…
Hello!
Advanced Run is the most powerful free launcher that allows you to run any program, run any command line command, open and edit and print documents on behalf of any user account without switching between users.
Advantages:
– Advanced Run substitutes standard Windows Run feature so it is easy to run it by pressing [Win]+[R] standard key combination.
– Pick Advanced Run… context menu item on whatever file you want to run or open.
– Pick any user account you need, type it’s password and run a command without switching between users.
– Select security profile to gain or reduce the privileges of the process you run.
– Use command templates to dramatically automate your frequent and routine actions.
– Specify implicitly shell verbs to perform additional actions on the file you need to open.
– Use command shortcuts to automate your routine work.
– Share your settings, security profiles and command shortcuts within your corporate network.
– Take advantage of preinstalled security profiles and a whole bunch of useful command shortcuts.
– Advanced Run has always been and always will be completely free!
Check it out at http://www.ilyns.com/advanced-run.asp !
Thanks for that bonus tip! You saved the day for me. Great post.
Advanced run is not supported on the 64 bit platforms:(
Are there any other ideas to have a batch file always run as administrator when launching from the Run… command? I’ve got a tonne of NET stuff in batch files, and hitting Windows+R and typing in the name is really nice and easy. I’d like to keep doing it. Would re-doing the scripts in PowerShell help?
You can change compatibilty modes of any programs (including protected as “part of system”) by manually setting them using Regedit. See this registry branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
hi.
i would like to set my Steam to ‘Run as Administrator’, except i cannot tick the “Run this program as Administrator” box… cause its blanked out.
how do i change it so it isnt blanked out?
ty.
I love you man !
Thanks a lot !