how to run a powershell script as administrator

Question

On my Windows 7 Desktop, I have script.ps1, which needs admin privileges (it starts a service). I want to click on this script and run it with admin privileges.

What's the easiest way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

Here is one way of doing it, with the help of an additional icon on your desktop. I guess you could move the script someone else if you wanted to only have a single icon on your desktop.

1. Create a shortcut to your Powershell script on your desktop
2. Right-click the shortcut and click Properties
3. Click the Shortcut tab
4. Click Advanced
5. Select Run as Administrator

You can now run the script elevated by simple double-clicking the new shortcut on your desktop.

Answer 2

On UAC-enabled systems, to make sure a script is running with full admin privileges, add this code at the beginning of your script:

param([switch]$Elevated)

function Test-Admin {
  $currentUser = New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal $([Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent())
  $currentUser.IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltinRole]::Administrator)
}

if ((Test-Admin) -eq $false)  {
    if ($elevated) 
    {
        # tried to elevate, did not work, aborting
    } 
    else {
        Start-Process powershell.exe -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList ('-noprofile -noexit -file "{0}" -elevated' -f ($myinvocation.MyCommand.Definition))
}

exit
}

'running with full privileges'

when running your script with the -elevated switch, it will attempt to elevate privileges before running.

Answer 3

if you are in the same powershell you could do this:

Start-Process powershell -verb runas -ArgumentList "-file fullpathofthescript"

Answer 4

Since it's sitting onto your desktop, I'd say the most effortless way to get this done is dragging it onto the elevation gadget.

Otherwise you could make a separate script using the elevate command on your ps1 script.

Or, you could apply elevate just to the service-starting bit.

Answer 5

PowerShell ISE lives at %windir%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell_ISE.exe. You can right-click that and select "Run as administrator" and run the script from in there.

You can also find it under the Windows Logo > All Programs > Accessories > Windows PowerShell and do the same thing with those shortcuts.

Answer 6

If you want an option to launch a Powershell script as adminstrator, directly from the Explorer context-menu, see section 2 of my answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/57033941/2441655

Answer 7

Add this to the beginning of the script:

$currentUser = New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal $([Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent())
$testadmin = $currentUser.IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltinRole]::Administrator)
if ($testadmin -eq $false) {
Start-Process powershell.exe -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList ('-noprofile -noexit -file "{0}" -elevated' -f ($myinvocation.MyCommand.Definition))
exit $LASTEXITCODE
}