How to use RunAs Cmd to Launch Explorer, Windows 8

Question

any idea why this is not working?

runas.exe /user:Administrator "cmd /c explorer"

it returns:

Windows cannot find the specified file. You may not have appropriate permissions.

the following works by itself:

cmd /c explorer

thx!

Answer 1

You could always open a dos prompt as Administrator then go to the directory in question then do a Explorer . then it will open the location in question as the elevated user.

Answer 2

Usually one wants to run as an Administrator to edit a file, or get permissions to delete a file:

To get to the permissions on a file you can right click on it and select Properties. Then select Security. You will see this dialog:

Then Click on Edit and change the permissions for the relevant user (e.g Mike). You need to have admin privileges to do this, which can be set via User Account Control.

The File Permissions window looks like this:

Edit as required.

I have admin rights but Windows 8.1 still protects some system files (such as the Android studio.exe.vmoptions) and I used the above method to give me write access to the file.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Answer found here http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-run-explorer-as-administrator-on-windows-8-1-windows-8-and-windows-7/

"Microsoft does not allow running Explorer as administrator in Windows 8.1/8 (and in Windows 7 too). The solution to run Explorer elevated...

1- take ownership of registry key below.

• Right-click, Permissions, Advanced, Owner Change
• or, Use Winaero's RegOwnershipEx application, which allows you to take ownership of registry keys

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID{CDCBCFCA-3CDC-436f-A4E2-0E02075250C2}

2- rename or delete the value named 'RunAs'.

3- now Restore Ownership (this failed for me done manually-- i could not re-add TrustedInstaller --user not found).

4- at this point, you will be able to run explorer as admin

5- this process does not cleanly exit when you close the Explorer window! You must remember to terminate it every time you elevate Explorer after you are done working in the Explorer window.

Alternate solution: use Winaero's ELE.exe app to start any program as administrator from the command line.