How to Add a Right-Click Menu Option to Run a Program Elevated

From the Windows Taskbar, you can start a program elevated by holding the Ctrl & Shift keys and then clicking on a pinned shortcut. To launch a program elevated from the right-click menu, you can add custom entries and launch it using a script or using the NirCmd utility. Earlier we wrote about the new elevate command-line argument in NirCmd, which you can implement in the context menu.

This article tells you how to add a right-click menu option to run a program elevated.

Example: Add “Notepad (Administrator)” Option to the Context Menu

1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and go to:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell

2. Create a subkey named Notepad
3. Select Notepad, double-click the (default) value and set “Notepad (Administrator)” as the data
4. Create a string value named HasLUAShield
(This adds the UAC shield icon to the context menu item. Ref: Add UAC Shield Icon to the Right-Click Menu)
5. Create a string value named Extended
   
   
6. Under the Notepad key, create another subkey named Command

7. Select Command, and type in the following value data for (default)
   "C:\Windows\System32\nircmd.exe" elevate notepad.exe "%1"

   (Assuming that you’ve copied NirCmd.exe to the Windows\System32 directory.)
   
   

8. Exit the Registry Editor.

Press and hold the Shift key down, right-click on a file (say, the HOSTS file) that you want to edit using Notepad under elevated privileges, and then click Notepad (Administrator)

Other Possible Uses

Register and Unregister DLLs from the Right-click menu. (REG file)

Open an elevated Command Prompt window from the Desktop context menu. (REG file)

Take Ownership of a file or folder from the context menu. (REG file)