Some processes or applications might run with admin rights? Here is how to check if a process or application runs with administrator rights in Windows.
When you launch a program or process in Windows, it has two choices. It can run as a Standard or Administrator user. As you can tell from the names themselves, a Standard user is way more restricted than the Administrator user.
Typically, when a program or process needs to run with admin rights, you will see a UAC (User Access Control) prompt.
Sometimes, applications or processes might already be running or automatically launched with administrator rights in the background. This happens because those applications or processes might be launched by the system or another program already running with admin rights. On the other hand, maybe you launched the program with admin rights.
When a process runs with administrator rights, it is flagged in Windows. That means you can check if a process or program is running as an administrator using Windows Tools. It is pretty easy to do.
Let me show you how to determine if a program or process is running with administrator rights without further ado.
The steps below work the same in Windows 10 and 11.
Check if a process or program is running with admin rights
We will use the good old task manager to find if a program or process is running with administrator rights. Let me show you how.
- Right-click on the Start menu.
- Choose the “Task Manager” option.
- Go to the “Details” tab.
- Look at the “Elevated” column.
- If it says “Yes,” that process runs with admin rights.
- If it says “No,” that process is not running with admin rights.
- Once you have the information, you can close the Task Manager.
Steps with more details:
We must open the Task Manager. To do that, right-click the Start menu and choose the “Task Manager” option. You can also use the “Ctrl + Alt + Esc” shortcut.
Go to the “Details” tab in the Task Manager. This is where you will find all the processes. See if you can find the “Elevated” column in the Details tab.
If you cannot see the “Elevated” column, you have to add it. For that, right-click on any column heading and choose the “Add column” option.
Select the “Elevated” checkbox and click the “Ok” button.
Under the “Elevated” column, if it says “Yes, ” that specific process is running with admin privileges. If it says “No,” then that process runs as a Standard user.
After determining if the process is running with admin rights, you can close the Task Manager app.
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That is all. It is that simple to check if a process is running as an administrator.
I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need some help, comment below, and I will try to help as much as possible.
