Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

Windows Vista Secrets

Andrew Coates ::: MSFT — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 04:06:43 GMT

Tim Sneath , one of the Windows Vista Technology Evangelists, has a great series going on his blog -

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

aelij — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:50:46 GMT

I use Windows Vista Secret #5: I added a command prompt shortcut to the quicklaunch and in it's properties, Compatibility tab checked "Run this program as an administrator." So it's two keystrokes: Win+4, Alt+C. :-)

New and Notable 122

Sam Gentile — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 17:42:11 GMT

Family morning at the Gentiles means the whole family watching Radiohead from 1994 while waiting for

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

Simon Middlemiss — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 19:34:50 GMT

I do it exactly the same way I do in XP. Windows+R then type 'cmd' and hit enter, as everything executed from the Run menu has elevated permissions...

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

tims — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 07:50:09 GMT

Hi Simon - nice to hear from you! Actually, this doesn't work for me, at least not in the standard configuration. The telling difference is the lack of an "Administrator:" prefix to the title of the command window. Maybe you have UAC disabled?

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

Simon Middlemiss — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:15:21 GMT

I am pretty sure I have UAC enabled (I'll check when I get back tonight). Do you not see under the Run textbox the Windows Shield with 'All Tasks will execute as Administrator' written next to it?

I am still on Beta 2 at home so that may be the difference...?

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

Simon Middlemiss — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:29:41 GMT

Ok, you are right, you only get what I was describing when you turn off UAC.

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

zzz — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 09:39:17 GMT

This is unacceptable, thus I changed the policy to "elevate without prompting"

My normal method is to have cmd prompt on top of the Start Menu, then press Win, down arrow (select the top item), enter. This still works in Vista if above policy change is made to "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users"

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

Sven Groot — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:03:56 GMT

I've a small problem with this. While the ctrl-shift-enter trick works if the search box finds an executable, it doesn't seem to work if it finds a shortcut (in that case, ctrl-shift-enter apparently does nothing).

The Windows SDK installs a shortcut called "CMD shell" which opens a command prompt with the proper environment variables for the SDK set. So when I type cmd in the search box, it gives that shortcut as a result, not cmd.exe, and ctrl-shift-enter doesn't work. I have to type "cmd.exe" into the box for your tip to work.

Vista Tips Galore

The Daily Ramblings of an SMS Engineer — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:22:00 GMT

Well it has been a long, long, difficult project, but come tomorrow around 8:30 my time, all of my long

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

tim scarfe — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 06:00:14 GMT

cmd.exe?

I think you means powershell.exe ;)

Windows Vista Top Tip: Keyboard shortcut for user elevation

Martin Woodward — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 15:11:14 GMT

I'm loving Windows Vista RTM. I'm actually considering moving my main development PC over - just need to be certain that everything I use will work just fine - in the meantime, I'll stick with it running from my Core...

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

Steve B — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 19:02:36 GMT

I'm using the RTM, and this doesn't work for me. I've tried "cmd" and "cmd.exe". In both cases, pressing SHIFT+ENTER does nothing (Start menu vanishes, but no command prompt appears).

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

Chris — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:46:17 GMT

I was able to elevate the SDK Command Prompt shortcut with the "CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER" when focused on it in the start menu.

btw - Great Tip

Vista desktop search & starting applications as administrator

Dennis' Blog — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:28:20 GMT

Via Tim Sneath I've learned that you can start an elevated command prompt from the Start Menu. Press

re: Windows Vista Secret #10: Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

m g — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 07:29:51 GMT

A question:

why doesn't it work for me and also, even when I click run as administrator it doesn't work, it shows me the hourglass and does not do anything.?

Windows Vista Secrets

Armin Stockner — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:10:59 GMT

Tim Sneath hat einige sehr hilfreiche Windows Vista Secrets veröffentlicht die euch das Leben mit dem...

New and Notable 122

Sam Gentile — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 22:33:34 GMT

Family morning at the Gentiles means the whole family watching Radiohead from 1994 while waiting for

New and Notable 122

Sam Gentile's Blog — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:06:17 GMT

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