How to Run a Program as Administrator in Windows 11

In Windows 11, the programs you open do not automatically get full control of your PC. Even when you are signed in with an administrator account, apps normally start with ordinary standard-user rights. When a task genuinely needs administrative power — installing or removing software, editing protected system settings, or running a fix-it command — you have to elevate: deliberately run that one program as an administrator. This guide covers every reliable way to do it in Windows 11, explains the User Account Control prompt you will see, and flags when to be careful.

If you have done this on Windows 10, you already know the moves — the mechanism is identical. Windows 11 mostly just tidied the menus. Where a step looks different from Windows 10, this guide points it out.

Why Windows makes you elevate

The system behind all of this is User Account Control (UAC). Under UAC, even an administrator normally receives a filtered access token — effectively standard-user rights — for the programs they launch. When a program needs to do something administrative, Windows asks you to approve a one-time elevation to the full administrator token. That approval is the UAC dialog you have seen: it dims the desktop and asks whether you want to allow the app to make changes. If you are signed in as a standard user, the same prompt instead asks for an administrator's password. Either way, elevation is a conscious, per-launch decision rather than a permanent state. Microsoft's How User Account Control works describes the same mechanism: signing in as an administrator creates two tokens, and every app inherits the standard user one until you give consent or credentials.

Method 1 — Right-click and choose "Run as administrator"

This is the everyday way, and it works almost anywhere a program icon appears.

1. Find the program — on the Start menu, on the desktop, on the taskbar, or as an .exe in File Explorer.
2. Right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
3. Approve the User Account Control prompt: click Yes, or enter an administrator password if you are asked for one.

A few Windows 11 specifics:

• Start menu tiles: right-click the app, and if you do not see the command straight away, hover More to reveal Run as administrator.
• Taskbar: right-click the app's taskbar button to open its jump list, then right-click the app's name in that list and choose Run as administrator.
• File Explorer: right-click the .exe directly. On Windows 11 the command sits in the main context menu; on Windows 10 it is in the same menu without the "Show more options" step.

The program starts with full administrator rights for this session only. Launch it normally next time and it goes back to standard rights — nothing is changed permanently.

Method 2 — The keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Enter

This is the fastest trick in Windows, and your hands never leave the keyboard.

1. Press the Windows key and start typing the program's name — for example cmd, powershell, or notepad.
2. With the result highlighted, hold Ctrl+Shift and press Enter.
3. Approve the User Account Control prompt.

The same combination works from the Run box (Windows+R): type a command such as taskschd.msc and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run it elevated. It also elevates existing shortcuts — hold Ctrl+Shift while you double-click a pinned or desktop shortcut and Windows treats it as a request to run as administrator.

Method 3 — Make a shortcut always run elevated (Advanced)

If there is one program you always run as administrator, bake elevation into its shortcut so you do not have to remember each time. You still get the UAC prompt at launch — this just saves the extra click.

1. Right-click the program's shortcut and choose Properties.
2. On the Shortcut tab, click the Advanced button.
3. Tick Run as administrator, then click OK.
4. Click OK again to close Properties.

This setting lives on the shortcut, so a different shortcut — or the raw .exe — to the same program is unaffected. Use it sparingly, for tools that are useless without administrative rights.

Method 4 — The Compatibility tab (for older software)

There is a second place to make a program always request elevation, aimed at older apps written before UAC existed that misbehave without administrator rights.

1. Right-click the program's .exe (or its shortcut) and choose Properties.
2. Open the Compatibility tab.
3. Under Settings, tick Run this program as an administrator.
4. Click OK.

If the checkbox is greyed out, the choice may be enforced for everyone — look for a Change settings for all users button on the same tab — or the program may be one Windows will not let you elevate this way. Reserve this for legacy apps that only run correctly with administrator rights; for everything else, elevate on demand with Method 1 or 2.

Open an elevated Terminal, PowerShell, or Command Prompt

Much of Windows troubleshooting lives at the command line, and many commands fail — often with an "access denied" message — unless the console itself is elevated. In an elevated window, every command you type inherits administrator rights. On Windows 11, the default console host is Windows Terminal.

• Fastest: press the Windows key, type terminal (or cmd / powershell), then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter and approve the prompt.
• Power-user menu: right-click the Start button (or press Windows+X) and choose Terminal (Admin).
• Right-click: find the app in the Start list, right-click it, and choose Run as administrator.

You can tell an elevated console apart because Windows prefixes its title bar with Administrator:. Inside Windows Terminal you can also open an elevated tab from the tab-bar dropdown by holding Ctrl+Shift as you pick a profile. On Windows 10, the Windows+X menu shows Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin) instead of Terminal.

Elevate from Task Manager's "Run new task"

Task Manager can launch anything elevated, which is handy when the desktop or taskbar is misbehaving.

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Click Run new task (on the toolbar of the Processes or Details view; on Windows 10 it is File → Run new task).
3. Type the program or command — for example explorer.exe or cmd.
4. Tick Create this task with administrative privileges, then click OK.

Run a scheduled task with the highest privileges

For a program that must run elevated automatically — say, on a schedule or at sign-in — use Task Scheduler. A task set to run "with highest privileges" launches elevated without stopping at a UAC prompt, so treat this as an advanced option and point it only at trusted programs. Microsoft's Security Contexts for Tasks reference is explicit that a task otherwise runs with low-level privileges whenever UAC is turned on.

1. Press the Windows key, type Task Scheduler, and open it (elevate it with Run as administrator if you plan to edit system tasks).
2. Choose Create Task (not "Create Basic Task", which lacks the option) in the Actions pane.
3. On the General tab, tick Run with highest privileges.
4. Add your program on the Actions tab, set any triggers on the Triggers tab, then click OK. You must be using an administrator account for the task to run elevated.

Which method should you use?

For a one-off task, reach for the right-click Run as administrator command (Method 1) or the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut (Method 2) — both elevate a single launch and leave nothing behind. For a program you elevate constantly, set it on the shortcut's Advanced options (Method 3). For legacy software that refuses to run correctly without administrator rights, use the Compatibility tab (Method 4). Need a console? Open an elevated Terminal. Need it hands-free on a schedule? Use Task Scheduler's Run with highest privileges. In nearly every case the UAC prompt still appears at launch — that confirmation is a feature, not a nuisance.