Home | Resource Guides | Tech Tips | Network Administration | Hardware | Certification

Tech Tips › Windows Vista

Tech Tips / Windows Vista

Restoring 'Run as Administrator' for Vista Shortcuts

Question:
Why is the "Run as Administrator" option no longer available to me?
I've been running Windows Vista as a non-administrator account and have configured some shortcuts on my desktop. Why is the "Run as Administrator" option no longer available to me?

Answer:
You may have turned off the User Account Control (UAC) feature. UAC allows you to log in as a standard user and perform most of the tasks, without requiring the administrative privileges. This enhances security by reducing the attack surface of the operating system.

If you disable UAC, the non-administrators won't be able to use the "Run as Administrator" option when they click the shortcuts. Instead, clicking the shortcuts will run the applications as the standard user.

If you want to restore the "Run as Administrator" option for your shortcuts, you need to enable UAC. Although clicking on the UAC prompts may sometimes seem like a nuisance, turning UAC off isn't recommended.