In Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 operating systems, we often need to run certain applications with administrator privileges to perform advanced tasks. For instance, to check and repair system files using sfc /scannow command, we need to open Command Prompt with admin rights.
Launching a program with admin rights isn’t a difficult task. One can right-click on a program shortcut and click Run as administrator option. Windows 7 users can type the program name in the Start menu search box and then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter hotkey to run the program as administrator. Windows 8 users can also use this hotkey after typing the program name in Start screen.
If you always want to launch a program with admin rights, you can enable the Always run as administrator option present under properties (right-click on the program, click Properties, and then switch to Compatibility tab to see the option).
When you click Run as administrator or press Ctrl + Shift + Enter hotkey, you will see the User Account Control (UAC) prompt where you need to click Yes to proceed. Not all users like to see the UAC dialog all the time. While one can completely disable the UAC to avoid the prompt, there are better ways to run a program with admin rights without seeing the UAC prompt.
ElevatedShortcut is a small program that lets you launch programs with admin rights without having to see the UAC prompt. All you need to do is create a shortcut of the program on your desktop with the help of ElevatedShortcut. Once the shortcut is created, you can click on it to launch the program with admin rights.
For instance, if you want to open Command Prompt with admin rights and don’t want to see the UAC prompt, first create the shortcut of Command Prompt on the desktop using ElevatedShortcut and then double-click on the shortcut to open it with admin privileges.
Using ElevatedShortcut to create a program shortcut is fairly simple. Run the program (it’s portable), browse to the program file, select a folder to store the new shortcut, and then click Ok button. It even lets you modify a regular shortcut into an elevated shortcut.
ElevatedShortcut is compatible with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems. Note that separate executable is available for Windows 7 and previous Windows versions.
Download ElevatedShortcut
