Daily Cup of Tech

A number of programs that used to work just fine in Windows XP have difficulty in Vista because of the new security model. When I discover one of these applications that requires me to run it as an administrator, I reconfigure the shortcut so that it will automatically run the application properly.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in as a user with local administrative privileges.
2. Right click on the application shortcut and select Properties.
3. In the Properties window, click on the Advanced… button near the bottom.
   
4. Check off the Run as administrator box.
   
5. close the Advanced Properties box by clicking on the OK button.
6. Close the Properties box by clicking on the OK button.

The next time that you run the application from the modified shortcut, it will run with administrative privileges.

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3 Responses to “Run a Program as Administrator Automatically in Vista”

1. Jared Says:
   August 14th, 2007 at 6:43 am

   Rather than logging out of your current account and logging in as an Administrator, you can use the same process from your current account. The way I usually force a program to do this is:

   Right-click on the shortcut, select Properties.
   Select the “Compatibility” tab
   Click the button at the bottom “Show settings for all users”
   At the UAC prompt, enter the administrator credentials.
   On the new properties window, checkmark the “Run this program as an administrator”.
   Click OK, and OK again.
   The next time this program runs, the UAC will prompt you for your administrator username/password.

   I find this useful for a few programs that require access to other folders in the “Program Files” directory, like my video conversion software. It isn’t allowed to update any files without administrator privileges.

   Also, an important Vista note - when you install a new program, you are sometimes prompted at the end of the install process to run the newly installed software. You want to be careful about allowing that, because if you’ve given the installer admin privileges (most likely), telling it to launch the new program will launch it with the same admin privileges, rather than your current user account. Rather, you want to end the installer and run the program via a shortcut instead.

2. Larry Says:
   August 14th, 2007 at 10:57 am

   The Advanced / Run As works for XP as well and is very useful.

   When making an AutoIt program, the #RequireAdmin will check to see if it is being ran as an administrator, and if not prompt for administrator credentials in both Vista and XP.

   Further, if you are logged into a limited account, and want a “root” Window in XP, right click any IE6 icon and select Run As and enter any admin user/pass. Now anything done inside this window, including launching of apps, remote desktop, admin shares, etc will all be done with admin privileges. Note that if you plan to move or copy something, it must be done within the same window, that is, you can not copy Foo shortcut from your admin window directly to the limited users desktop - you have to move to their desktop in the admin window.

   Cheers : )

3. marcus Says:
   August 23rd, 2007 at 9:23 am

   So installer themselves could change shortcuts propeties to run as administrator.

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