Windows 10: See if Process is Running as Administrator (elevated) in Windows 10

How to: See if Process is Running as Administrator (elevated) in Windows 10


Information A process is an instance of a program that is being executed. Each process running in Windows is assigned a unique decimal number called the process ID, or PID.

Some legitimate applications require a full administrator access token (elevated) to perform their functions or tasks. For example, when a program that you are trying to run is giving you a Access Denied or No Permission type error.

The User Account Control (UAC) message is displayed to request consent or credentials to allow an application to use the full administrator access token in any of the following circumstances:

• The application developer marked the application to require an administrator access token. This is done by using a development technique known as an embedded manifest.
• UAC detected that the application is an installer or setup application. (Automatic detection can be disabled by using Group Policy.)
• Microsoft analyzed the application and provided an application compatibility shim. A shim is a small amount of extra code provided by Microsoft that supports certain non-Microsoft applications.
• An administrator configured the application compatibility settings on the application's Program Properties page.
• An interactive user right-clicked the application and then clicked Run as administrator to start the application.

This tutorial will show you how to determine if an app or process is running as administrator (elevated) or not in Windows 10.



Here's How:

1. Open Task Manager in more details view.

2. Click/tap on the Details tab, right click on the column header bar, and click/tap on Select columns. (see screenshot below)



3. Check the Elevated and UAC virtualization box, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



4. You can now look in the Elevated column to see if it says Yes or No for running as administrator (elevated). (see screenshot below)

5. You can also look in the UAC virtualization column to see if a process (ex: regedit.exe) in the Name column is running elevated or not. (see screenshot below)


Note Not allowed = Running as administrator (elevated).

Enabled = Subject to UAC virtualization.

Disabled = Not subject to UAC virtualization.


See also:

• Tales of Application Compatibility Weirdness - Demystifying UAC Virtualization - Windows Development Blog
• UAC Virtualization - Allowing standard users to update a system protected area

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to See if a Process is 32-bit or 64-bit in Windows 10
• How to See What User a Process is Running As in Windows 10
• How to Run an App as Administrator in Windows 10
• How to Change User Account Control (UAC) Settings in Windows 10
• How to Create Elevated App Shortcut without UAC Prompt in Windows 10
• How to Kill a Process in Windows 10
• How to Save List of Running Processes to File in Windows

:)

 

Windows 10 issue "Subst" command doesn't work

So, you log in as the user "Administrator", correct?

You did not switch off UAC, correct?

If you answered both with "yes", the Administrator user does *not* run with administrative privileges. Only, if it needs administrative privileges it will prompt you for them and you click "yes". That's all.

You cannot "log in as an elevated user". You can elavate later for specific tasks if there is need. This is almost seamless.

If you login as a user *with* administrative privileges you do not have these privileges with normal actions! Because you don't need them! The system prompts you if you need them.

If you login as a user *without* administrative privileges the system prompts you if it needs administrative privileges. In this case you have a little more to do than say "yes". You have to click the administrative account that you want to use and enter
the password. You do not switch users! Only this task will be carried out with the privilege of that other user.

The normal way is to create a user account of your own, say "leonard". This user account gets created during installation and will have administrative privileges. There's no reason not to use it. In case you need admin privileges it will ask you.

If you do it that way then the Administrator account is locked and not usable. Only if you go to safe_mode (or there is no other user with admin privileges or you unlock it) you will have access to that Administrator account, which is not password-protected.
So, this Administrator account is mainly a safe-guard for you, in case, something's wrong with your normal account.

which I took to mean that if you run subst in the non-elevated command window, only users without
administrator privileges can see it.

This is correct, depending on the way you read it. It's not dependant on the basic user privileges, it's dependant on the privilege that the user has at that moment. A user with admin
privileges does normally *not* run elevated. Only if you do "run as administrator" you go to elevated state and only for that process/task, not for the "whole" logged-in user. So, if you are logged in as the Administrator user and run the subst command in
a normal command window then you have it in File Explorer and you should have it for most other operations. It won't be available for a process that runs elevated, e.g. installer for a program or in incompatible program that runs elevated all the time. For
this case you would have to run subst in an elevated command window additionally and you should be able to access that virtual drive no matter if that process is elevated or not. (There may be problems with the files created in elevated mode, once you run
a non-elevated process against it, depends on the permissions/integrity level set during creation.)

 

How do you create a profile in regedit so that it links with a user

See if this tutorial will help. Option #4

Enable Elevated Administrator account

 

Purchased laptop from Dell 12/2015 and set up all my admin settings, but now I'm noticing changes from Dell's reimage changed those settings. How do you change regedit to run elevated if your already logged in as Admin.? I can run command prompt Elevated with noticing restrictions after reimaged with latest build from Dell, Hoping Anniversary build fixes.



Win10 Pro x64 Inspiron 3542 latest build Dell reimaged May 2016 OEM

 

Hello hpmini, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Regedit should run as administrator by default when you open Registry Editor while signed in to an administrator account.

Run as Administrator in Windows 10

 

I will check again by using Win + R regedit. In Win 7 used regedit.exe.

 

What is meant No in elevated and Not Allowed in UAC Visualization

 

Hello @SmartManoj, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

"No" means that the program is not running elevated (run as administrator), and "Not allowed" means you will not get a UAC prompt for it.