Create Administrator Mode Shortcuts Without UAC Prompts in Windows 7 or Vista
One of the most talked about annoyances in Windows Vista are the UAC prompts that constantly pop up when you are trying to make system changes. It’s especially irritating when you often need to run a particular tool that requires administrator mode in order to run. Thankfully there’s a simple hack that you can do to create an administrator mode shortcut that doesn’t prompt for UAC.
Note: This should also work on Windows 7.
This works by setting up a scheduled task to run the application in Administrator mode, and then setting up a separate shortcut that tells the scheduled task to run. If that sounds difficult, it’s really not… just follow through the instructions below.
Note: Because you are required to click through a UAC prompt to setup the scheduled task, it’s not really a security loophole.
Create the Scheduled Task Item
Open up Task Scheduler through the start menu search box (usually you can just type task), and then on the right-hand side click the “Create Task” link:
The first thing you need to do is give the task a short, simple name, preferably without any spaces in it. Then check the box for “Run with highest privileges” (very important)
Now switch to the Actions tab, click the New button, and then browse down to the application that you are trying to start.
Close out of the dialogs by clicking the OK button, which should create the new task in the list. You can right-click on it and choose “Run” at this point, simply to make sure that it launches the application the way you were expecting.
At this point our scheduled tasks setup is done, so you can close out of that if you want… as long as you remember the name that you used for the task.
Create the Shortcut to Start the Task
Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.
Now here’s where the real magic happens… we need to add a command that will run the scheduled task, passing in the name of the task that we used. As you can see, I used runregedit as the name for the task.
Make sure you enter the task name like this, replacing the capitalized letters for the name of your task. (It’s not case sensitive)
schtasks /run /tn “TASKNAMEINQUOTES”
Now give your shortcut some useful name, and then click next to create it.
At this point you should have a shortcut that will launch the application in administrator mode.
But we can tweak it a bit more… open up the properties for the shortcut, and then change the Run drop-down to “Minimized” (to hide the schtasks command line utility), and then click on Change Icon.
The simplest thing to do is just browse down to the application that you are opening with the shortcut… and you should see the icons for the application itself.
So now you have a nice looking icon that launches an application in Administrator mode… with no prompts whatsoever.
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Seems like a great idea, but once we’re all doing this won’t the hackers look in our scheduled tasks list for opportunities?
I almost set up one of these shortcuts to the task scheduler … that might not be such a brainy idea, ha.
There are always security risks when you bypass security… you are probably right, if everybody did this then the hackers would start looking there.
Of course that would also imply that they have software already running on your computer, which means they are already most of the way towards taking control of your system.
Ah, what a great hack. I’m constantly right-clicking Notepad++ in start menu for the “Run as Administrator” option. Not a big deal, but it’s slow. I created a shortcut as described here, then put the shortcut into RocketDock, and now I have instant access to edit protected files as needed.
Yes, there is a minor security risk here, but as The Geek says, if a hacker were already able to scan your scheduled tasks, then most likely they’ve already achieved administrator access and thus your shortcuts would be the least of your problems.
Excellent article. Of note, on my W2K8 install this requires “\Microsoft\TASKNAME” for some reason. (when I was looking at logging info on why it wasnt working, I saw the task refered to as that rather than just the name.)
I like it, but there’s one problem: When the application runs, it isn’t the foremost app. So I did this with the CMD prompt, for example, but I can’t just run the shortcut and then start typing. Running the shortcut opens CMD, but then I have to click on the window to actually select it before I start typing. I’ve tried various settings on the shortcut w/r/t maximizing, minimizing, etc. No joy. Any suggestions?
Frequent pop ups can also be reduced simply activating the Run as Administrator feature, both on the shortcut icon and on the exe files themselves. For example right clicking on the Acrobat shortcut and its Acrobat.EXE, going to Properties / Compatibility / Privilege Level and activating the Run as administrator checkbox. In every program that I have installed consciously, I have done this so that pop ups from what I authorized are brought to a minimum. Of course, security reduces, especially from some sort of updates that these programs could run, but they are the programs that I choose to install anyway.
Makes sense to me, popups would show with applications that are trying to install themselves or that I did not approve.
Thanks for this , Help me lots.
I have been trying to solve this for some time.
Just not had a lot of time to be able to sit and work it out.
Very Nice.
Thankyou
Oh man! Very good tip! It’s exactly what I looking for!
Thank you!
Wow thanks man! I was looking for a way to do this from the command-line, since runas doesn’t work very well (at all). Unless I’m just dumb…but thanks regardless!
The last line is almost like fine print on a contract: “So now you have a nice looking icon that launches an application in Administrator mode…”
What would help me greatly is to be able to create a task that would run an administrator rights program within a standard user account – during start up of the OS. I’m ok with the idea and practice of most UAC applications; however, it seems that there should be a way to set some programs to run with elevated rights – everytime a standard user logs on and without prompts. It seems that UAC is either all on or all off.
This seemed like a solution but it is not – any suggestions?
thanks
@James: In the new task dialog just select the triggers tab, click new and select “At Log On” to run that program with Administrative privileges at login.
i tried the above method on ccleaner, but it still pops up the UAC. what to do?
I couldn’t get VHMP01’s dual-spec idea to work so I tried Geek’s. No luck. There seems to be some detail missing – like who you are when you set up this schedule and who you are when you run it.
I tried as a limd user pretending to be admin but that didn’t work. So I tried as admin in a limd a/c and that at least got it established but I did it ‘for’ the admin in the User settings. That didn’t work. So I tried it for the limd user in the settings – and that didn’t work either.
So, admin for l/user in l/user a/c. On l/user desktop. Finally ran, but prompted for admin pwd.. What could be wrong?
(Using it to run Total Commander file manager.)
After I browse for the program I want to run and click OK to go back to the Create Task window, I click OK on that window again, a window pops up that says
“Enter user account information for running this task.”
Then it has two rows:
User name: (name of computer)/(User’s name)
Password:
At this point, all I need to do is enter my password, but when I do that it says: “Task Scheduler cannot create the task. The user account is unknown, the password is incorrect, or the user account does not have permission to create this task.”
More than likely it’s the last one. Is this supposed to happen on a regular account?
I am getting what Sonic 260 is getting. I am trying to create this from a standard account not as the administrator. If I have this created on the administrator account will I be able to use it on a standard account without the password? That is what I am trying to do.
This is a great hack. I’ve been using the Symantec UAC tool for this, but this is cooler.
Great. Its work fine. Thank you.
great tip thanks!
I can’t get the shortcut to work! I’ve followed the example to the letter and I get nothing.
Why does your example show schtasks.exe, but mine doesn’t ?
I entered– schtask / run / tn “runeverything” (everything being the search program I want to open)
I get a prompt asking me which program to use….
Help!
Oh, and it runs fine in the task scheduler….btw. I just can’t get the shortcut to work.
Yeah I have the same problem. I get an error
ERROR: The system cannot find the file specified.
If you’re having trouble with the shortcut then try deleting the entire “Start In:” line (leaving it blank). That’s what I did in order to get it working (64-bit).
This works great. But, in Windows 7, the default is for changes in Windows settings to not require a UAC prompt. So, none of what I did when setting up the task required me to click a prompt. Doesn’t that nullify your statement: “Note: Because you are required to click through a UAC prompt to setup the scheduled task, it’s not really a security loophole.”?
If you have problems with the shortcut, try removing the quotes around the task name.
uhhh i tryed this with halo 3 toy box a modding program and i got a ton of errors
Thanks for the tip
On Seven, you must not have the ” ” arround taskname to get it work.
Doesn’t seem to work well for me. I’m using this alternative so I can add EVGA Precision to startup folder without the UAC prompt on boot up. But the UAC prompt still appears. Strangly when closing the app and clicking the shortcut manually in the startup folder in Start Menu the app starts without a UAC prompt…
Doesn’t work on Windows 7,the task-scheduling works fine (I can run the tasks and it opens the program) but somehow, the shortcut doesn’t work… I even tried it exactly like in the article (filled in everything the same as in the article with regedit) and at first a window popped up for a millisecond with ERROR, but after trying some of the previous commentors’ suggestions (deleting “” and the start in field), the window that pops up for a fraction of a second reads: SUCCESS: Attempted to run the scheduled task “runregedit”
But it doesnt run the progam…
if you’re having trouble making it work on your laptop, check the Conditions tab of the “Create Task” window. there might be a box checked “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power” which of course will screw up the task if you’re running on battery juice.
yea i had problems getting it to run on W7 until I removed the quotes, now it works great.
The short cuts work fine but in Win 7 it’s not quite a cigar if you are making Registry changes! Can you help please? The Shortcut runs and passes the initial UAC BUT then two further dialogues need to be cleared: the Registry Editor worning and then notifiction that Registry keys have been changed.
Does anyone have the switches to clear straight through the the additional dialogues please?
Wanted to use this for RocketDock & SpeedFan under Windows 7 but…..
When you enter Sleep or Hibernate mode the task started by this ‘tip’ is stopped
Still looking for a Windows 7 ‘whitelist’ solution like Symantec’s UAC tool for Vista
I saw these instructions elsewhere, and I tried it. The result is that the application ran without requiring the UAC pop-up, but, where it would normally start up 5 seconds after answering the UAC prompt, instead it takes 10 minutes (not really, I got sick of waiting and shut it down after 5 minutes)