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David Overton's Blog » How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)

I have had a few people tell me that they have had problems getting an administrative command prompt up and running in Vista.  If you have done it correctly then a windows will open just like the one to the left.  Notice that it has opened into the X:\windows\system32 directory and that it has the title "Administrator: X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe.  Anything else and I would be suspicious.

 

The process is simple - do either of these

  1. Click Start Start button , click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
  2. Right-click Command Prompt, click Run as administrator

or

  1. Click Start Start button
  2. Type cmd into the search box and wait for Command Prompt or cmd.exe to appear in the list
  3. Press CTRL-Shift-Enter

Either way, you should get an User Account Control (UAC) prompt appear with a BLUE banner on the top - press Continue here. 

For more information on User Account Control go to here

 

ttfn

David

 

Posted Mon, Mar 12 2007 8:55 PM by David Overton
Filed under: , , , , ,

Comments

Lee Evans wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Mon, Mar 12 2007 10:04 PM

Hi David - I think there's a slight mixup with your other post - "powercfg -h on"?!

David Overton wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Mon, Mar 12 2007 10:44 PM

Lee,

thanks - removed the line, however it is linked to it as some people were not getting admin cmd prompts.

ttfn

David

David Overton's Blog wrote iQubed Blog » You gotta love Linux - why, you can do this on Windows too
on Fri, Mar 23 2007 3:12 AM

I saw this over at Vijay's blog and remember these commands from my *nix days. I then thought, well I

David Overton's Blog wrote The hybrid sleep feature and the hibernation feature in Windows Vista may become unavailable after you use the Disk Cleanup Tool (or fix hibernation not working)
on Fri, Mar 23 2007 11:49 AM

[updated 12th March 2007 21:03] This particular problem went round the internal discussions groups -

David Overton's Blog wrote How to get the Office Assistant (Office 2003) to work in Windows Vista, i.e. remove the "Not enough memory" error messages
on Tue, Jul 31 2007 3:07 PM

[updated 31st July for x64 systems] I have been asked this question several times and finally dug into

Alice Goodbread wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Sun, Sep 2 2007 6:22 PM

Thank you for this very helpful information!!!

KB wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Sat, Jan 26 2008 6:53 PM

Thanks so much. That fixed it and my daughter is so happy to have the cat assistant now. You rock.

David Overton's Blog wrote How to repair the .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0 on Windows Vista
on Fri, Feb 1 2008 7:33 AM

My boss had some problems on his PC after installing some tools onto it and upon further diagnosis it

Steven wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Wed, Apr 9 2008 5:15 PM

I tried every combination but it keeps reverting back to the command prompt. Any suggestions?

MJS wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Fri, Jun 6 2008 3:38 PM

I've followed your fix for the 2000 Office Assistant 'out of memory error message' and it  fixed it wonderfully.

Thanks.

06/06/2008

[email protected] wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Tue, Jun 15 2010 1:08 AM

yooo i have the same problem but with windows 7 what can i do?

David Overton wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Tue, Jun 15 2010 7:08 AM

ronnyelracing,

Do you mean you are having trouble starting an admin command prompt?

Thanks

David

MEK wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Mon, Oct 18 2010 4:45 AM

The fix worked wonderfully for Office 2003 Professional and Vista 32-bit.  Thanks so much, it's great to see Links the cat again!!  Thanks for being so helpful!!

Chiara wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Sat, Nov 27 2010 4:05 AM

Thank you. After 3 years, I finally got my pets back.  And thanks to you it was so easy!

Keith wrote re: How to start an administrative (or elevated) command prompt and tell if you got it right (in Vista)
on Thu, Feb 28 2013 7:07 PM

I am trying to enable Hibernate on my Windows Vista system. I am listed as an Administrative Account.

I click on the Windows symbol in the lower left hand corner of my screen.

I can type "cmd" or "command" in there and right-click on them and select "Run as Administrator" for both.

If I type "cmd" and select "Run as Administrator" I see a command box that has this heading in the top frame of the box, "Administrator:C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe"

If I type "command" I see a program called "command prompt" and when I select "Run as Administrator" I get a command box that has this heading in the top frame of the box, "Administrator: Command Prompt"

So far, typing "powercfg -h on" or "powercfg /hibernate on" for both of these has not added the hibernate option to my shut down menu.

If I try this without "Run as Administrator" I get a message that "I do not have permission to enable or disable hibernation", which is what lead me to start right-clicking and selecting, "Run as Administrator, etc., etc.

I saw somewhere else someone posted that not being able to make the change could have to do with needing an updated drive i9n my video card??? That doesn't make sense to me. I think my NVIDIA drivers are fine.

OK. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance for everyone's input. :)

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