If you are trying to launch a task from the Windows command console and the system returns an error message due to lack of privileges, it is most likely that your user does not have administrator permissions on the PC. If you work with Windows 10, even if your user is an administrator, it is not enough to open the terminal window, launch the command and that’s it. It is also necessary that we previously open the MS-DOS window by running it as administrator.
For any of these cases, we will explain in a simple way how to open the Windows command console with administrator permissions. Let’s go there!
How to open the command console (MS-DOS) with administrator permissions
Depending on the version of Windows that we have installed, the methods differ a bit, with Windows 10 being the one that makes it easier for us when managing our superuser permissions.
Windows 10
If you have a Windows 10 computer, you have it really easy. Hover your mouse over the browser on the taskbar and type ” cmd ” or ” Command Prompt .”
You will see that the best match is the command prompt application, or what is the same, the MS-DOS command console. Instead of clicking on the application, go to the side menu of options and select ” Run as administrator ” as shown in the following screenshot.
Next we will see a user account control message requesting confirmation to allow the command console to run with administrator permissions. Confirm the message and voila, the terminal window will open and all the commands you launch will be executed as an administrator user.
Windows XP / 7 / 8.1
In previous versions of Windows, such as Windows 7 or Windows XP, we must perform the following steps:
- Open Windows file explorer.
- Navigate to the ” C: \ Windows \ System32” folder .
- Locate the exefile .
- Holding down the ” Shift” key, right click on the file and select ” Run as administrator “.
If we have logged in with a user who does not have administrator permissions, the system will ask us to enter the credentials of a user who does have these permissions. Once this is done, the command console will open and the system will allow us to make changes to the computer by entering commands in MS-DOS.
