Run programs elevated without UAC prompt

Windows Vista User Account Protection has proven itself as being very effective against malware and their likes.

When having User Account Control (UAC) enabled, then all programs that requires elevated access will cause a UAC prompt for consent. The UAC prompt for confirmation can be an annoyance if having a special program that one often uses.

It is possible to avoid the UAC popup dialog if running the program as a Scheduled Task with Administrator privileges. The following steps will create a scheduled task that launches a program, so it automatically gets elevated rights:

  1. Open the Task Scheduler from Administrative Tools in the Control Panel.
  2. Choose to Create New Task… in the Task Scheduler Library (Not a basic task).
    • On the first fan General give the task a Name and enable the check-box Run with highest privileges.
    • On the third fan Actions add a New… action that starts the program.
    • If wanting the program to be started when a certain event is triggered, then one can create a new trigger on the second fan Triggers (At Startup, At Logon, etc.).
  3. Press OK button when done.

When having created a scheduled task, then one can activate the scheduled task using the schtasks.exe utility:

SCHTASKS.EXE /RUN /TN “Name of Task”

Because schtasks.exe is a console utility, then the command prompt window will do a quick flash. This can be solved by creating a shortcut-link to the command-line, and specify on the shortcut-link that it should run minimized.

Credits HowToGeek.com