In Windows, you can easily create an elevated or administrator shortcut for any application to run it without the UAC password prompt. Here’s how.
When a program requires administrator permission or if you run it using the “Run as administrator” option, you will see a UAC (User Access Control) prompt asking for administrator password or permission. If you provide permission, the application will run. Otherwise, Windows will not run the application with admin rights. Add to that, Standard users cannot add applications to Windows startup if they require administrative permission or UAC prompt to run.
To deal with that, you can create an elevated or administrator shortcut to run an application without the UAC password prompt. Since the shortcut doesn’t require admin or UAC password, you can add it to the startup list or allow standard users to run it with admin privileges.
In this quick guide, let me show you the process of creating an elevated shortcut to run applications without the UAC password prompt.
Steps to Create Administrator Shortcut without UAC Password Prompt
To create an elevated shortcut that does not require a UAC prompt to run applications as an administrator, we are going to use Task Scheduler. To make it easy, I’ve divided the whole process into bite-sized steps. Let me show you how.
Follow the steps below to create an administrator shortcut to run applications without the UAC password prompt.
- Open the Start menu.
- Search and open “Task Scheduler“.
- In Task Scheduler, click on the “Create Task” option.
- Go to the “General” tab.
- Type a name in the “Name” field.
- Check “Run with highest privileges” option.
- Select “Windows 10” from the “Configure for” dropdown.
- Go to the “Actions” tab.
- Click on the “New” button.
- Select “Start a program” from the Action dropdown menu.
- Type “cmd.exe” in the “Program/Script” field.
- Enter the below command in the Arguments field. Replace “Task Name” with the name you chose in step 5 and “Program path” with the full program path of the application you want to launch.
/c start "Task Name" "Program path" - Go to the “Conditions” tab.
- Uncheck the “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power” checkbox.
- Click “Ok” to save changes.
- You can now see the task you created in Task Scheduler.
- Close the task scheduler.
- Go to the desktop.
- Right-click on the desktop.
- Select “New → Shortcut“.
- In the blank field, type the below command. Replace “Task Name” with the name you set in step 5.
schtasks /run /tn "Task Name" - Click “Next“.
- Type a name for the shortcut in the blank field and click “Finish“.
That is it. You’ve created an elevated shortcut. Just double-click on the shortcut and the program will be launch with administrator privileges without the UAC password prompt.
Optional – Customize the Shortcut Icon
If you don’t like the default shortcut icon, these are the steps you should follow to change it.
- Right-click on the shortcut.
- Select “Properties“.
- Click on the “Change icon” button.
- If you see a warning or information window, click “Ok“.
- Select the icon of your choice and click “Ok“.
- Click “Apply” and “Ok” buttons in the main window.
As soon as you save the changes, the new icon will be applied.
If you don’t like any of the built-in icons, you can set your own custom icon. To do that, download the icon of your choice in .ICO format from the internet. Click on the “Browse” button in step 5, select the ICO file and click “Open”. Select the icon and “Ok” in the icon selection window.
That is all.
FAQ: Elevated Shortcut without UAC Prompt
When configured properly, the administrator or elevated shortcut can bypass the UAC prompt and requires no administrator password.
To create an elevated shortcut, you need to use the Command Prompt and Task Scheduler. Follow the steps listed above to create the administrator shortcut.
No it doesn’t. When you use the administrator or elevated shortcut, it just launches the application with admin privileges. That is all.
That is all. I hope that helps. If you like this article, check out how to open Command Prompt always as admin in Windows 10. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.
