Create Administrator Mode Shortcuts Without UAC Prompts in Windows 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.
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.
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 up’s 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 up’s 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?