How-To Run an Application as Administrator from the Run Box

Here is how you can quickly run an Application or a Command as Administrator from the Run Dialog Box

Windows is designed to be a multi-user operating system. It has a pretty robust built-in user management system that allows the user of multiple users with different levels of privileges and permissions, allowing the system owner to specify and set these permissions.

There are two types of users in a Windows system – administrators and standard users. Both have different levels of permissions and privileges. For example, an Administrator can access the types of settings and configurations which can significantly alter the workings of a computer. They can change security settings, install software and hardware, access all files on the computer, and make changes to other user accounts. On the other hand, a Standard user has only access to basic tools and applications without any significant control over how the computer works.

However, some applications and tools are designed to be used by both types of users but have restricted access to specific areas or tools inside the applications. For example, the Command Prompt and the Windows PowerShell are really powerful tools inside Windows that are accessible to both types of users but only allow administrators to run specific commands, like installation of services or checking saved Wi-Fi passwords.

By default, most of these applications open in the Standard mode and don’t allow administrator-level privileges unless you specifically open them as an Administrator. There are two ways you can do it,

  • Find the .exe file on your machine and right-click on it and then select Run as Administrator. This one is widely used but is also a bit slower as you need to actually find the application/command you want to run as an administrator first.
    Moreover, if you want to run just a random command as an administrator, you will either need to create a batch file or run it as administrator from the CMD. Our guide on running an application as an administrator covers this.
  • Alternatively, you can quickly run any command or open any application as an administrator directly from the Run dialog box which is just one key-combination away. This guide will cover how to do that.

Note: You don’t need to be logged in as an Administrator to open an application as an Administrator. Instead, you just need to know or have access to any user account on the same computer which is an Administrator. You can check if a user has Administrator access using our guide over here.

Run an Application as an Administrator

  1. Open the Run dialog box by pressing Start + R.
  2. In the dialog box, type the name of the application or the command you would like to run as an administrator, as seen in the screenshot above.
  3. To run that command as a normal user, you just need to press Enter. However, to run it as an administrator, all you need to do is press this key combination, Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
  4. It will ask you if you want to give allow the app to make changes to your PC, as is the case when you run any command as an administrator. Press Yes.

That’s it. It should run the command as an administrator.