- How to open Elevated Command Prompt
- Why do we need elevated command prompt?
- How to open elevated command prompt?
- How to Open Elevated or Admin Command Prompt in Windows?
- How to Open Elevated or Admin Command Prompt
- From the Win-X menu in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1
- Using Ctrl + Shift + Enter in Windows 10
- Using Start Search – Windows 10 and earlier
- Using Task Manager – New task
- Run as administrator using Shortcut Properties
- Run as Administrator via the folder and desktop right-click menu
- How to Use .reg Files
- How to open elevated command prompt in Windows 10
- Opening an elevated cmd.exe from Power Users menu, or the Win+X menu
- Opening elevated cmd.exe via Windows 10 Start menu
- Launch an elevated command prompt instance from a non-elevated one
- About Sergey Tkachenko
- 20 thoughts on “ How to open elevated command prompt in Windows 10 ”
How to open Elevated Command Prompt
Learn how to open elevated command prompt on your Windows system.
Why do we need elevated command prompt?
Starting from Vista, Windows has two modes for running command prompt – Elevated and normal. Normal command prompt does not allow to run commands that require admin privileges, so elevated command prompt is required. For example, you want to add a new user account to your system, this requires admin previliges, so even if you are admin, you would not be able to add a user from a command window opened in the normal way.
Below are different methods for opening an elevated command prompt.
How to open elevated command prompt?
There are two ways to open elevated command window. These are explained below.
Click on the Start button in the taskbar. Type ‘cmd’ in the search box. In the results, you will see cmd application. Right click on it, and select the option Run as administrator .
User Account Control will prompt Do you want to allow the program to make changes to your computer? Click on Yes and elevated administrator command prompt window will be opened.
The alternative way is to search for cmd in the start menu search button as mentioned above. Press Ctrl – Shift and click on the cmd application.
this process did not work for vista
This works on all Windows editions – Windows 7, 10 and Vista too.
Thanks for your help. I could open elevated command prompt and apply some secure options
so how would you create an administrative account though prompt command if your doing it though a user that isnt under administrative privileges is there any way around putting or be asked for administrators password on windows vista ofcourse
I accidentally deleted my admin account and I’m trying to follow the instructions above, as well as the runas command (to which I get the error 1327: Logon failure: user account restriction. Possible reasons are blank passwords not allowed, logon hour restrictions, or a policy restriction has been enforced.)
When I try to “run as administrator,” I am not given the option to select “continue,” thus I cannot open a command prompt with elevated privileges. The window that opens looks like it has a Norton Anti-Virus shield and says “User Account Control.” It says to enter the Admin password- but there is no area to put it in, and the only available option is “cancel.”
Help?
Srini
best thing for you to do is get windows 7 disk set your bios to boot from CD run the process like you was going to do a install the disk should detect you have os installed and offer to repair it click yet then go to command prompt from there you can add a new admin user to the domain e.g net localgroup administrators sini add /
another option you can upgrade another account to admin type net user he push enter pick to see what accounts are on the PC you mite even find your old account just deactivated in cmd
Hi dear ..
Is there any method that I can see all computers conected in local network ?
I writed ” net view ” but this show me little computers conected , I want to see all computers in the company ..
Please help …
Administrator Command prompt is still denied access to stopping wuauserv
Access still denied.
Got a Command line version?
windows update stop
How to add admin Grp to User profile. I cannot open in CMD in Admin mode.
Thank so much for this advise.
How about windows XP.
Cant find any videos or so
Elevated command prompt was introduced from Windows Vista. This did not exist in XP and previous editions.
This does not work for windows 10. Sorry. I did exactly as described and “System Error 5 Access Denied” still appears.
Why does microsoft do everything in its power to screw its customers over?
It doesn’t work it still ask me for my password which is what I’m trying to change
Hi, it seems the original microsoft account I used when setting up my new laptop late last year no longer has administrator permissions. I have been trying to find a solution and it all comes back to this:
_________________________________________________________
** User Account Control will prompt “Do you want to allow the program to make changes to your computer?” Click on Yes and elevated administrator command prompt window will be opened.
_________________________________________________________
The above instruction will not work for me because when the box opens up asking “Do you want to allow the program to make changes to your computer” there is not option for ‘yes’, only ‘no’. So all I can do is select no and I’m back to the same problem.
I can’t make changes to my antivirus or any other programs, even though my account should be an administrator account.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you
I am NOT able to reset my forgotten Administrator password using my regular user account. It keeps asking me Administrator password otherwise it says “System error 5 has occurred – Access is denied”.
I am NOT able to open “Elevated Command Prompt” because it will have a “Password” space to be enter” and I CANNOT continue after this message pop-up “Do you want to allow the program to make changes to your computer? I CANNOT Click on “Yes” since there is a “PASSWORD space” I have to enter before clicking “Yes”.
Thanks,
Danh
Tried the elevated command window. Still says System Error 5 Access Denied.
How to Open Elevated or Admin Command Prompt in Windows?
Command Prompt is one of the most used tools in Windows. For tasks requiring administrator privileges, we need to start Command Prompt as administrator (“elevated”). This article describes different ways to open an elevated or administrator Command Prompt window.
How to Open Elevated or Admin Command Prompt
From the Win-X menu in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1
Press Win + X key, or right-click the Start button. Click Command Prompt (Admin)
Note: Recent versions of Windows 10 replace Command Prompt with PowerShell in the Win + X menu. To get Command Prompt back in the menu, see the article Get back “Open command window here” context menu option in Windows 10
Using Ctrl + Shift + Enter in Windows 10
- Right-click Start, and click Run.
- Type cmd.exe in the Run dialog
- Press Ctrl + Shift and Enter .
This launches a Command Prompt window as administrator.
Using Start Search – Windows 10 and earlier
- Click Start, type cmd.exe
- When the search results are shown, right-click the cmd.exe entry and choose Run as administrator.
Alternately, select the cmd.exe in the search results using the UP/DOWN arrow and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter on the keyboard. Ctrl + Shift + Enter runs the program as administrator.
Using Task Manager – New task
- Right-click on the taskbar and click Task Manager. Or, press Ctrl + Shift and Esc
- In Task Manager, click the File menu and click Run new task
- Type cmd.exe in the text box.
- Enable Create this task with administrative privileges
Task Manager method offers an advantage. In Windows 10, as Task Manager runs as administrator by default, it doesn’t show you the UAC prompt when you launch a program using it from an administrator account.
Run as administrator using Shortcut Properties
Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. You can even pin the Command Prompt shortcut to the taskbar for easy reach.
Or you can create a new desktop shortcut to cmd.exe. Right-click on the shortcut and choose Run as administrator. To run the shortcut as an administrator by default:
- Right-click the Command Prompt shortcut you created on the Desktop
- Click Properties
- In the Shortcut tab, click Advanced.
- Enable the checkbox for Run as administrator
- Click OK and OK.
Now, every time when you double-click the shortcut Command Prompt window will open elevated.
If you’re a frequent user of the Command Prompt, you can Pin it to the Start menu or Taskbar.
Run as Administrator via the folder and desktop right-click menu
To add the Open Command Window Here (Administrator) option to the right-click menu for folders and the Desktop, use the following .reg file:
To add the entry to This PC (Computer) context menu, use the following REG file:
Note that the .reg files above replace the runas command in the registry if one was added manually earlier. For example, if you’ve added something like “Take Ownership” to the right-click menu for folders, it will be replaced by Command Prompt (Administrator).
How to Use .reg Files
Make a .reg file out of the above contents, and double-click the .reg file and apply the settings to the registry.
You can now open an elevated Command Prompt from the context menu of a folder, This PC or on the Desktop. It adds an Open Command Prompt here (Administrator) option in the context menu for folders and This PC (Computer) and the Desktop. Here are the screenshots:
How to open elevated command prompt in Windows 10
In my articles, you often see instructions to open the command prompt as admin. In Windows 10 also, you will need to use it from time to time, so I would like to share with you the various ways to open an elevated command prompt. Let’s explore them right now.
Opening an elevated cmd.exe from Power Users menu, or the Win+X menu
This way is very handy in Windows 10. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft has implemented the Power Users menu, which contains many useful items like Control Panel, Network Connections and so on. Windows 10 also comes with such a menu. It contains the Command Prompt (Admin) item which is exactly what we need.
To access this menu in Windows 10, press Win + X shortcut keys together on the keyboard.
Tip: You can customize the Win+X menu with our freeware tool called Win+X Menu Editor. Check it out.
Update: This option has been removed in Windows 10 Creators Update. See the following article to learn about this change in detail: Windows 10 build 14986 replaces Command Prompt with PowerShell everywhere. To restore the command prompt in the Win + X menu, see this tutorial: Add Command Prompt back to Win+X Menu in Windows 10 Creators Update.
Opening elevated cmd.exe via Windows 10 Start menu
In Windows 10, you can use the search box inside the Start menu. Type cmd there and press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER to launch the command prompt elevated. This also works on the Start screen.
Launch an elevated command prompt instance from a non-elevated one
You can launch an elevated instance of the command prompt from a non-elevated one. You might wonder why you would need to do this. Let me show you with an example scenario.
Whenever you press the SHIFT key and hold it and then right click on a folder in Explorer, you get the usual «Open command window here» menu item. 
This is very handy, you just opened a command window at the path you wanted. Now what if you need an elevated command prompt at that path? Command Prompt does not provide any way to open an elevated command window at the same path.
Update: The context menu option has been removed in Windows 10 Creators Update. You can restore it as follows:
To resolve this issue and improve usability, you can use a little application I coded called ELE. It is able to reopen an already opened command prompt as administrator and keeps the current path.
Usage of ELE:
Simply typing ele — opens a new console window as administrator in the current directory.
ele /x — opens a new console window in the current directory and closes the original console window. If ELE is started from a file manager, it just opens a new elevated console at the current path. 
Copy-paste ele.exe in any folder which is included in your system %PATH% environment variable, e.g. C:\Windows or C:\Windows\system32. That will make it accessible from any folder and you won’t need to type the full path to ele.exe every time you want to elevate the command prompt.
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About Sergey Tkachenko
Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.
20 thoughts on “ How to open elevated command prompt in Windows 10 ”
Hi Guys, I’m having problems with windows 10, so before I uninstall it, I tried what you wrote and unistalled HMA 1st, now I cant find a way of installing it again, I’m in a country where all this stuff is blocked so now I’m stuck.
Please help.
Thanks.
I followed all your instructions ,but it seem windows 10 is as bad as 8.Nothing downlowd
There is nothing wrong with Windows 10. Spend more than a few minutes trying to learn where all of the settings are and you wouldn’t be complaining.
I upgrade to windows 10 and all outlook is gone
Having a great experience of using windows 10.
Simply Awesome and Cool.
Outlook works great.
I don’t understand why you people are complaining windows 10.
I apologize for such a noob question but I can’t seem to get to C:\users\christian\App Data\Roaming using an elevated cmd prompt. I used to just type in a hidden path in windows start but Windows 10 doesn’t have one.
Thanks so much for any help you could provide.
Just answered my own question. All I had to do was unhide my folders from c:\users down. I can see AppData and all the folders down the path. Hope this can help someone else.
this was very very very useful
thanks a lot
i try this but it gives me a erroe 0x800f081f. can u plz help me
Thanks for posting this. The old ‘start a cmd window and do runas /user:someadminaccount’ thing doesn’t work anymore on 10 apparently.
How can l write this command prompt
The syntax of this command is:
NET USER
[username[password|*][options]][/DOMAIN]
username
username[/DELETE][/DOMAIN]
Username[/TIMES:
username[/ACTIVE:
hey guys i am using windows 10. now i can’t open cmd as administrator because every time i follow instructions from websites here appears a box where an administrator password is required and there is no space to fill the password. Please help me. Please
I tried the first two options, and all I got was a single delayed error box (after many attempts) that said something about not having a specified action and needing to download something.
Never mind. (I don’t know how to delete a comment)
Hello, how are you?
Hello, I am fine, thanks.
Hi, first time here possibly I should no better but I cant seem to find a DL for this ele.exe which would be the optimal solution for my purposes? Thank you OP
Thanks for a this Sergey.
I found a quicker way if you happen to have the command prompt pinned to your taskbar – as I always do.
CTRL + SHIFT+click seems to work – either CTRL + SHIFT+left-click directly on the taskbar icon or right-click then CTRL + SHIFT+left-click on the “Command Prompt” item that is at the top of the rising menu. In both cases you will get the “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” dialogue, on which you obviously click the “Yes” button.
One other thought while I’m here. Dates always help if you are looking for a fix for a issue in an fast moving technical environment. You need to know if the answer you found is likely to be up-to-date with latest releases etc.
(Although I haven’t tried ele yet, so I don’t know about that) your solutions are still good in Win 10 ver. 1803 (released on 30 April 2018) even though I note you wrote your article in October 2914 which was 9 months before the official release date of Win 10, so I assume it was based on a beta release of Win 10.
However, I think it would really help kin general if there were dates attached to each of the comments to show when they were made.
