Have Windows "Run" dialog run as Admin?

Question

Windows has this nifty little shortcut for running commands. Press Windows+r.

Problem is, is there an easy way to have the commands I run in that dialog to prompt for a UAC credentials dialog and get consent from a admin user.

Right now, I'm trying to run this command in the Run dialog runas /user:admin "regedit.exe"

It works when I run this though: runas /user:admin "cmd"

Answer 1

I have the exact same problem. The Ctrl+Shift+Enter solution only works if you use the not-as-reliable start menu run box - but for the Win+R run box you are out of luck. The closest thing to a solution I have found is to manually set application properties to 'Run as Administrator' under the program compatibility tab.

For system utilities such as cmd.exe, you can put a shortcut in your User folder (C:\Users\%USERNAME%) and set 'Run as Admin' under shortcut advanced settings. See http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/command-prompt-admin-rights-windows-7/ for detailed instructions. (To run the short cut you have to type the whole file name, e.g. cmd.lnk)

Answer 2

On Windows 8/Server 2012, if you want to run cmd as an administrator you can just use Win + X. Then in the popup menu you can run cmd through the Command Prompt (Admin) option.

See the screenshot:

Answer 3

cmd works just like the run command. Pin it to the taskbar, then Ctrl+Shift+RightClick

Answer 4

Press Control+Shift before running a program and it'll run elevated.

Answer 5

This is how you run executable files as administrator from a Windows Run dialog:

RunAs.exe /user:Administrator "regedit.exe"

You must use RunAs.exe instead of runas.

Answer 6

Take a look at Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista. It allows you to run applications as administrator by simply running "elevate [command]"

Answer 7

An alternative is to turn UAC off completely and always run all programs as administrator. It's maybe not recommended but believe me, it's a relief.

In Vista you could turn it off in the control panel, in Windows 7 you must modify the registry (Note: This is NOT the same as the no nags setting which only hides UAC without disabling it):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 
;Disable UAC
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"EnableLUA"=dword:00000000

A reboot is required after changing this.

Also be warned that this also disables VirtualStore (the redirection of reads and writes to/from the program files folder). To keep rogue programs intact you need to properly merge the .../AppData/Local/VirtualStore with your program files folders.

Answer 8

just press Win and then enter regedit. windows7 will provide you with some suggestions, rightclick onto regedit.exe and pick "run as administrator".

Answer 9

Go to C:/Windows/System32 and duplicate cmd.exe and rename it to let's saj cmda.exe and add atributes to "Run as administrator". So when Win+R, you type cmda (cmd + admin :D) you'll get uac prompt.

Answer 10

Since Windows 7 Powershell is automatically included in all machines, leading to an easier and more modern solution to this age old problem.

With powershell, any program can be run as administrator by running Start-Process command followed by the name of the program and Verb runAs to activate the UAC prompt. you can execute powershell commands right from run box so to get something like an adminstrator command prompt, you can write

powershell Start-Process cmd -Verb runAs

This is what It looks like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrhYdXoBors

Answer 11

powershell -command "start-process \"cmd.exe\" -ArgumentList \"/C echo select vdisk file="\\oliver-homeserver.lan\backup$\backup.vhd" ◙ attach vdisk | diskpart & pause\" -verb runas"

This will run an elevated command promt which echos commands to the diskpart utility in order to mount a vhd. The strange sign with the circle is an ASCII coded "Enter"-key to pipe multilined commads to diskpart. I hope, that helps, even if you do not need to run diskpart utility.