There are several cases on your Windows operating system that you need to use the command prompt in elevated mode (i.e using administrator rights). Such cases can be like enabling Hibernate mode, creating Windows bootable USB drive, installing new programs, making changes to registry, repairing Windows system files etc.

The simplest way of launching the elevated command prompt is by entering “CMD” command in the Startup or Search menu and then right-click and choose “Run as administrator”. Otherwise, you can press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys. This is little nuisance if you want to run the command prompt as administrator for many times. So it would be cool if we can make the elevated command prompt as the default one.

This tutorial will show you how to automatically elevate command prompt to run as administrator, every time command prompt is launched in Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista.

Step 1 :  Navigate to the following directory in Windows Explorer:

<C>:Users<YourUserName>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsAccessories

<C> is the drive where your Windows 7 or Vista is installed.

For Windows 8, navigate to Programs/ Windows System directory.

Automatically Elevate Command Prompt To Administrator

Step 2 : Delete the command prompt shortcut from this directory.

Step 3 : Navigate to the following directory in Windows Explorer

C:WindowsSystem32

Here you’ll find the CMD.exe, the original source file. Right click on the file and send a shortcut to desktop.

Command Prompt In Windows System32 Directory

Step 4 : Now right click on the desktop shortcut and select Properties. Switch to Shortcut tab, click on Advanced, check Run as administrator option, click Ok button and then Apply.

Command Prompt Properties
Run As Administrator Elevated Command Prompt

Step 5 :  Finally, move the changed desktop command prompt shortcut to the previous deleted location.

C:Users<YourUserName>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsAccessories

Whoila! You’ve succeeded. From now onwards, whenever you start “Cmd” prompt from Start Menu or Search box it’ll start in elevated mode.

One observation I made is that when you try to open command prompt using “Run” box its not opening in elevated mode, but in normal mode. Need to figure out, how this can also be done.

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[Img Source : IntoWindows.com]

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One Comment

  1. It is always appreciated when someone posts helpful tips like this, and greatly.

    I _am_ quite curious (and thought it might be mentioned in the tip, to be honest) – why go through the process of delete, recreate (on desktop, instead of in desired dir), _then_ copy this shortcut – or move – to appdata…etc..? I simply modified the shortcut’s properties to run as administrator, applied, re-checked and it held. And it works fine. What was the reasoning behind the delete, create, modify, move? Perhaps an issue that no longer exists? I am on win8 btw. Prior versions were a bit … more easily intuited. Cheers in all cases. Stephen