How To Open Elevated Command Prompt With Administrator Privileges In Windows 7 / Vista

There is a security feature in Windows 7 / Vista that comes with User Access Control (UAC) which means processes are launched in restricted mode unless users specifically accept the elevation confirmation. For example running a regsvr32.exe command which is used to register DLL/ActiveX or opening a batch file or script requiring administrative privileges require you to open an elevated Command Prompt. Elevated Command Prompt always run under administrative privileges so users need to launch command prompt will full admin rights and permission state. Here are a few ways to open elevated command prompt.

Method 1

Navigate to Start menu > All Programs > Accessories, here you will see Command Prompt shortcut.

command

Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.

right click

Method 2

Go to Start menu.

start

Type cmd in the Search Menu

cmd

Press Ctrl + SHIFT and Click on the cmd shortcut on the Start Menu. Ctrl-Shift-Enter is the general keyboard shortcut that triggers elevation to “Run as Administrator”.

UAC

Press Alt+C from the keyboard or click Continue to confirm the UAC elevation warning prompt and the administrative privileged command prompt will be opened.

admin

Method 3

Create a new desktop shortcut to CMD.EXE

shortcut

To run the shortcut as an administrator by default, right-click the Command Prompt shortcut you created on the Desktop, and choose Properties.

properties

In the Shortcut tab, click Advanced.

advanced

Check the option Run as administrator. Click OK and OK. Now, every time when you double-click the shortcut, command prompt window will open elevated

run as admin

Got any questions, suggestions, or comments? Feel free to leave a comment.

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21 Comments

Elvis says:

April 8, 2012 at 6:08 am

Hi
I was wondering how to make a batch file that opens up cmd on an administrator level to close a program

What ive got:
(AT)echo off
taskkill /IM (Program name) /f /t

But when i run it it says it denied because of not having adminitrator privilages

Can you help??

Reply
venkatesh says:

August 27, 2011 at 4:49 pm

hello
anybody help me to clear my usb device problem,when i put my flash drive to computer showing usb device not recognise

Reply
KT says:

July 11, 2011 at 10:56 pm

Try disabling this in Control panel:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Turn-User-Account-Control-on-or-off

Reply
Jonathan David Kula says:

January 24, 2011 at 1:36 am

How do you do this from within command prompt

Reply
sneha says:

March 10, 2010 at 5:23 am

Still i have to give username and password..I felt it is like runas command. I want pass password also because i want to run batch file from standard user (who dont have any administrative privilages)

Reply
Shockg says:

March 10, 2010 at 12:50 am

Ben Langton Thank you. I have been looking for this information for what seems like ages. This will make it easier for my users to run the files.

Reply
stieven says:

February 25, 2010 at 8:14 am

Thx for the elevating command. That was were I was looking for!!Now I can install and start a service with my batch file without have to worry about admin rights. Will be a lot easier for our users…

Reply
TheGrunger says:

February 8, 2010 at 9:38 am

I'm using win7 and this only works with the shortcut in Accessories folder. Any ideas what might help when I run cmd.exe directly through run command? I use commander quite a lot and it's much easier to just press win+R and type three letters than it is to search for a shortcut in start menu.

Reply
Yogesh says:

January 28, 2010 at 5:40 pm

i want to delete a file using command prompt in admin account but it is displaying that “Access is Denied”…..The files i wanted to delete using the command 'del *.*'

Reply
Ben Langton says:

October 22, 2009 at 10:25 pm

Here's what I use. It requires PowerShell. Basically, this causes a batch file to call PowerShell to re-run itself in an elevated command prompt. Just paste this at the top of the batch file. It hasn't been extensively tested, but it seems to work.:: ****************** Prompt for elevated permissions *************************:: This makes the batch file prompt for elevated permissions on Windows Vista:: or Windows 7, then re-run itselfVER | FINDSTR /IL “5.1.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=XPVER | FINDSTR /IL “5.2.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=2003VER | FINDSTR /IL “6.0.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=VistaVER | FINDSTR /IL “6.1.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=7If “%Version%”==”XP” GoTo SkipElevationIf “%Version%”==”2003” GoTo SkipElevationPushD “%~dp0″If Exist “%~0.ELEVATED” GoTo SkipElevation:: Have to escape double quotes because they are passed to Cmd.exe via ShellExecuteSet CMD_Args=%0 %*Set CMD_Args=%CMD_Args:”=”%Set ELEVATED_CMD=PowerShell -Command (New-Object -com 'Shell.Application').ShellExecute('Cmd.exe', '/C %CMD_Args%', '', 'runas')Echo %ELEVATED_CMD% >> “%~0.ELEVATED”:: If there are single quotes in the arguments, this will failCall %ELEVATED_CMD%Exit:SkipElevationIf Exist “%~0.ELEVATED” Del “%~0.ELEVATED”:: ****************************************************************************

Reply
- shruthi says:
  
  April 13, 2011 at 11:45 am
  
  hello ,
  
  i have used the above scirpt to open the administrator cmd prompt automatically.
  
  what i have done is i have a created a separate batch file called common.bat where it will contain the above script as mentioned by you.
  
  i have used the batch file in other batch file where on click of that batch file it should open the administrator cmd prompt and then it should continue with the installation
  
  so what i did is i have written the below cmd in the batch file
  
  start /B cmd /c \\KOR308479\DOORS_ERS\common.bat \\KOR308479\DOORS_ERS\doors93.bat rbin_tst_db profile_mm install > %TEMP%\doors_setup.log 2>&1
  
  but its not executing it will open the cmd prompt but it will not contiue further
  
  so kindly do the needfull.
  
  thank you
  
  Regards,
  shruthi
Ben Langton says:

October 22, 2009 at 5:25 pm

Here's what I use. It requires PowerShell. Basically, this causes a batch file to call PowerShell to re-run itself in an elevated command prompt. Just paste this at the top of the batch file. It hasn't been extensively tested, but it seems to work.:: ****************** Prompt for elevated permissions *************************:: This makes the batch file prompt for elevated permissions on Windows Vista:: or Windows 7, then re-run itselfVER | FINDSTR /IL “5.1.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=XPVER | FINDSTR /IL “5.2.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=2003VER | FINDSTR /IL “6.0.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=VistaVER | FINDSTR /IL “6.1.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=7If “%Version%”==”XP” GoTo SkipElevationIf “%Version%”==”2003” GoTo SkipElevationPushD “%~dp0″If Exist “%~0.ELEVATED” GoTo SkipElevation:: Have to escape double quotes because they are passed to Cmd.exe via ShellExecuteSet CMD_Args=%0 %*Set CMD_Args=%CMD_Args:”=”%Set ELEVATED_CMD=PowerShell -Command (New-Object -com 'Shell.Application').ShellExecute('Cmd.exe', '/C %CMD_Args%', '', 'runas')Echo %ELEVATED_CMD% >> “%~0.ELEVATED”:: If there are single quotes in the arguments, this will failCall %ELEVATED_CMD%Exit:SkipElevationIf Exist “%~0.ELEVATED” Del “%~0.ELEVATED”:: ****************************************************************************

Reply
rakesh kumar says:

August 27, 2009 at 10:52 am

dear sir/madam
i want to know how can i open the command prompt in administrator mode using the batch file………

actually i want to make a batch file which can open the command prompt in administrator mode…pls help me..

Reply
- Ben Langton says:
  
  October 22, 2009 at 1:25 pm
  
  Here's what I use. It requires PowerShell. Basically, this causes a batch file to call PowerShell to re-run itself in an elevated command prompt. Just paste this at the top of the batch file. It hasn't been extensively tested, but it seems to work.:: ****************** Prompt for elevated permissions *************************:: This makes the batch file prompt for elevated permissions on Windows Vista:: or Windows 7, then re-run itselfVER | FINDSTR /IL “5.1.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=XPVER | FINDSTR /IL “5.2.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=2003VER | FINDSTR /IL “6.0.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=VistaVER | FINDSTR /IL “6.1.” > NULIF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET Version=7If “%Version%”==”XP” GoTo SkipElevationIf “%Version%”==”2003” GoTo SkipElevationPushD “%~dp0″If Exist “%~0.ELEVATED” GoTo SkipElevation:: Have to escape double quotes because they are passed to Cmd.exe via ShellExecuteSet CMD_Args=%0 %*Set CMD_Args=%CMD_Args:”=”%Set ELEVATED_CMD=PowerShell -Command (New-Object -com 'Shell.Application').ShellExecute('Cmd.exe', '/C %CMD_Args%', '', 'runas')Echo %ELEVATED_CMD% >> “%~0.ELEVATED”:: If there are single quotes in the arguments, this will failCall %ELEVATED_CMD%Exit:SkipElevationIf Exist “%~0.ELEVATED” Del “%~0.ELEVATED”:: ****************************************************************************
- hashangayasri says:
  
  February 19, 2010 at 12:40 am
  
  wowwwwwwwwwww thank you lorrdzzzzz
- Michael Chavarria says:
  
  November 5, 2011 at 1:36 am
  
  This is great. Thank you for posting this addition to add.

How To Open Elevated Command Prompt With Administrator Privileges In Windows 7 / Vista

Method 1

Method 2

Method 3

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