Geekality

How to open an elevated Command Prompt window

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This is just a little step-by-step guide for how you can open up an open an elevated Command Prompt under Windows 7 (and Windows Vista I think). That is, a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges which allows you to do more stuff than you usually can.

Slow way

  1. Open your Start Menu
  2. Go to All Programs
  3. Go to Accessories
  4. Right-click Command Prompt
  5. Select Run as administrator
  6. Answer Yes to the following User Account Control question

Fast way

  1. Open your Start Menu, or press Win + S
  2. Type cmd in the search field, and you should have an item called cmd.exe or Command Prompt selected
  3. Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter
  4. Answer Yes to the following User Account Control question

Even faster way for Windows 8 and up

  1. Press Win + X
  2. Choose Command Prompt (Admin)

After following either of those, you should now have an elevated Command Prompt window running in front of you.

And now I have a simple guide I can link to if I mention elevated Command Prompt windows on my blog 😛