In addition to the ten or so other normal ways of opening a window to the
admin prompt, I just realized this works in a hurry (alt file shell admin).

Alt-F-S-A

<https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49404561/hotkey-to-open-cmd-with-administration-rights-in-current-folder-from-explorer>

Robin Goodfellow <Ancient-of-Days@Heaven.Net> wrote:

> In addition to the ten or so other normal ways of opening a window to
> the admin prompt, I just realized this works in a hurry (alt file
> shell admin).
>
> Alt-F-S-A
>
> <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49404561/hotkey-to-open-cmd-with-administration-rights-in-current-folder-from-explorer>

That only works in File Explorer (because the key sequence is for its
menu navigation), and only after selecting a folder, and opens a
PowerShell console, not a command shell.

If you want to open a command shell w/admin privileges, and do it a lot,
add a shortcut, like in a toolbar in the Taskbar, to run cmd.exe, and
edit the shortcut properties to give it admin privs.

To do the same for PowerShell, create a shortcut where you like to
powershell.exe, and edit the shortcut's properties to it admin privs.

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> asked
> That only works in File Explorer (because the key sequence is for its
> menu navigation), and only after selecting a folder, and opens a
> PowerShell console, not a command shell.

Thanks for your suggestions as I had posted that to help others, as you do.
As you noted, I would have preferred a command shell as admin instead.

This "says" you can open a command shell with "Alt+F M A" but it didn't work
for me (it didn't do anything). Does "Alt+F M A" work on Win10 for you?
<https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-the-fastest-smartest-ways-to-open-a-command-prompt/>

> If you want to open a command shell w/admin privileges, and do it a lot,
> add a shortcut, like in a toolbar in the Taskbar, to run cmd.exe, and
> edit the shortcut properties to give it admin privs.

My taskbar is on the side (up-down monitor real estate is precious) and
filled to overflowing with small icons (I have almost score of perfectly set
up browsers for privacy reasons - one setup per web site) and toolbars for
WinXP-style cascade accordion menus already in my Windows 10 taskbar), plus
timezone switches to foil aggregate fingerprinting, so my taskbar is kind of
full at the moment. :)

What I needed to do was run a openvpn.exe command as admin to run a test VPN
config file, as VPN requires root privileges to modify the routing table,
but I'm lazy (aren't we all?) so I didn't feel like typing the long path
(with spaces) to the openvpn command in the "Program Files" directory
(yes, I know about F3 & the tab command-line auto-complete functionality).

Therefore the "Win+R > cmd Ctrl+Shft+Rtn" that I usually use to open an
admin command window wasn't as convenient because that puts us into
"C:\Windows\system32" where I needed to open an admin command window _HERE_.

Of course, I could have added an admin menu long ago for popup functionality
<https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/59686-open-command-window-here-administrator-add-windows-10-a.html>
which was actually what I had googled for when I found Alt-F-S-A instead.
<https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36928503/how-to-open-command-prompt-as-administrator-from-address-bar>

But in my rightclick popup menu was only the normal "open cmd window here."
<https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/72024-open-command-window-here-add-windows-10-a.html>

> To do the same for PowerShell, create a shortcut where you like to
> powershell.exe, and edit the shortcut's properties to it admin privs.

I almost never use the powershell (mainly only when deleting unnecessary
default Windows crapware which, over time, builds up as Windows crud).
<https://winbuzzer.com/2020/06/16/how-to-remove-windows-10s-built-in-apps-bloatware-and-and-restore-them-again-xcxwbt/>

Your suggested admin-command-prompt shortcut is a nice idea, where I'd
couple your idea with the Task Scheduler in order to eliminate the UAC
prompt were I to spend the time to do it properly (but it wouldn't be any
faster than adding an "open admin command prompt window here" into the
rightclick popup menu, would it?).
<https://www.digitalcitizen.life/use-task-scheduler-launch-programs-without-uac-prompts/>

Thanks for adding suggestions to improve our efficiency where if anyone can
figure out how to make the documented "Alt+F M A" work, that would be nice!

Robin Goodfellow <Ancient-of-Days@Heaven.Net> wrote:

> This "says" you can open a command shell with "Alt+F M A" but it
> didn't work for me (it didn't do anything). Does "Alt+F M A" work on
> Win10 for you? <https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-the-fastest-smartest-ways-to-open-a-command-prompt/>

Dated January 4, 2017. Might be too old. Doesn't work for me probably
because Microsoft took away the "Command prompt here" context menu entry
(as noted below).

WinAero Tweaker has some settings to change PS behavior, like adding a
context menu entry for "Windows PowerShell (Run as Administrator)".
That should let you right-click on a folder in File Explorer to select
PS admin from the context menu rather than using shortcut keys to
navigate through File Explorer's menus.

You can read how the registry tweak works at:

https://winaero.com/powershell-administrator-context-menu-windows-10/

but I find using WinAero Tweaker to be much easier. There is also a
tweak to add "Command Prompt (Administrator)" to the context menu in
File Explorer. That is described at:

https://winaero.com/command-prompt-administrator-context-menu/

I've know about that one for a long time. There are online articles
(other than the above) that tell you how to add the context menu entry.
In fact, if you do the 3 tweaks - add Command Prompt, add Command Prompt
(Administrator), and add Windows PowerShell (Run as Administrator)",
you'll have the follow 4 entries in the right-click context menu for a
folder object in File Explorer:

Command Prompt
Command Prompt (Administrator)
Open PowerShell window here (*)
Windows PowerShell (Run as Administrator)

(*) That one got added by Microsoft since they want users to abandon
batch scripting with cmd.exe, and switch to PowerShell. To see this
entry, after selecting a folder, use Shift+RightClick to see the
alternate context menu with this entry. For the tweaks added by WinAero
Tweaker, there's an option if you those entries to show in the normal
RightClick context menu, or in the Shift+RightClick context menu.

If I added all of those into File Explorer's context menu, the context
menu gets more polluted, and maybe why some folks would prefer the new
entries to show up in the Shift+RightClick context menu.

Microsoft took away the "Command prompt here" content menu entry, but I
forget in which version or in feature update, and replaced with "Open
Powershell windows here". The above tweak might die someday if
Microsoft decides to become more forceful in getting users to abandon
cmd.exe for powershell.exe.

> Your suggested admin-command-prompt shortcut is a nice idea, where I'd
> couple your idea with the Task Scheduler in order to eliminate the
> UAC prompt were I to spend the time to do it properly (but it
> wouldn't be any faster than adding an "open admin command prompt
> window here" into the rightclick popup menu, would it?).

The tweaks are already available. Easier to use WinAero Tweaker. In
it, search on "command prompt" and "powershell".

Unless you disable UAC, the command shell and PowerShell menu entries
for admin shells will still prompt for protection.

I know about using the Task Scheduler to run events with elevated
privileges, and have used it several times, but when called by a
shortcut to run the scheduled task on-demand.

VanguardLH wrote:

> Robin "arlen" Goodfellow wrote:
>
>> In addition to the ten or so other normal ways of opening a window to
>> the admin prompt, I just realized this works in a hurry (alt file
>> shell admin).
>> Alt-F-S-A
>
> That only works in File Explorer

Here it doesn't work, the hotkey "S" for powershell is greyed-out

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> asked
>>> Alt-F-S-A
>>
>> That only works in File Explorer
>
> Here it doesn't work, the hotkey "S" for powershell is greyed-out

Thanks for testing it.
I'm on one of the latest Windows 10 subversions (AFAIK).
c:\> ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19042.1165]

For me, "Alt+F S A" works to bring up an admin powershell.
But for me, the suggested "Alt+F M A" does NOT bring up an admin cmd window.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-the-fastest-smartest-ways-to-open-a-command-prompt/

Luckily there are plenty of ways to bring up an admin command window.

Here's a script, for example, which brings up a RED admin command window.
@ECHO OFF
REM Open a new shell "Run As Administrator"
REM Based on script by foxidrive on alt.msdos.batch
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
IF NOT "%~1"=="" goto :START
SET LogFile=%TEMP%\cmda.vbs"
Echo Set UAC = CreateObject("Shell.Application") >"%LogFile%"
Echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~f0", "%cd%", "", "runas", 1 >>"%LogFile%"
Start "" /MIN "%LogFile%"
goto :EOF
:START
Cmd /k "CD /D "%*" & Echo Administrator: & color 4F"
:EOF