How to Open Elevated Command Prompt with Administrator Privileges in Windows Vista

Windows Vista and Windows 7 power users have many ways to launch a command prompt or Windows command processor (cmd.exe) with administrator privileges, rights or credentials. It’s a security feature in Windows Vista and Windows 7 that comes with User Access Control (UAC) that all processes will launch in restricted mode unless users specifically accept the elevation confirmation. For command prompt, the commands may refuse to run or have access denied error. So users need to launch command prompt will full admin rights and permission state. Here’s a few ways and methods the elevated command prompt can be opened and ran as administrator.

Method 1

1. Click on Vista Start button.
2. Locate the Command Prompt menu item (buried deep inside Accessories under All Programs or appear on program access history).
3. Right click on Command Prompt.
4. On the pop-up right click context menu, select “Run as Administrator”.

Method 2

1. Click on Vista Start button.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type in “Cmd” (without quotes) in the Open textbox.
4. You should see “This task will be created with administrative privileges”.
5. Click on OK or press Enter.

Method 3

1. Press the Win keyboard key or click on Vista Start button.
2. Type cmd into the Start Search textbox.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter keyboard shortcut. Ctrl-Shift-Enter is the general keyboard shortcut that triggers elevation to “Run as Administrator”.
4. Press Alt+C or press Continue to confirm the UAC elevation warning prompt.

Method 4

1. Click on Vista Start button.
2. In the Start Search box, type in “Cmd” (without quotes).
3. Right click on the Command Prompt in the search result listing.
4. In the right click menu, click on “Run as Administrator” menu item.

Method 5

1. Press on Win + R keyboard keys.
2. Type in Cmd into the Open textbox.
3. Hit OK or press Enter.

Method 6

You can create an easy access shortcut to elevated command prompt with administrative privileges at the desktop or Start menu.

Method 7

Add a right click contextual menu option of “Open Command Prompt as Administrator” to the Computer (My Computer) so that you can simply right click and click on the item to open the super command prompt.

Method 8

Turn off or disable User Access Control (UAC).

Method 9

If you prefer to hold down “Shift” key and right click on a folder open a command window here, a registry hack will allow you to open command window at current folder in elevated mode as administrator.

All methods above also works in Windows 7.

This guide has been reposted and updated at Tip and Trick.