The example below launches a VB script as administrator on Windows 7 and Vista regardless if the context menu contains the “Run as administrator” option. Registry tweaks exist to add the run as administrator option to the context menu for .vbs files but this creates complications if the script is distributed to other people.
When the script below is executed it checks to see if it was passed a command line argument named “elevated”. If it is not found the script recursively calls itself passing the elevated command line argument and requests to be run as administrator. The user is prompted to confirm the action and the restricted script exits leaving the escalated administrator script running. When the user grants permission the elevated argument is found and the script changes back from the %System32% working directory to the script where the script is located.
If WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("elevated") = False Then
'Launch the script again as administrator
CreateObject("Shell.Application").ShellExecute "wscript.exe", """" & WScript.ScriptFullName & """ /elevated", "", "runas", 1
WScript.Quit
Else
'Change the working directory from the system32 folder back to the script's folder.
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
oShell.CurrentDirectory = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName)
MsgBox "Now running with elevated permissions"
End If
Thanks a lot, I used this in a program that I wrote to utilize the netsh command. The purpose of my program was to save time when changing between static and dynamic. Your blogpost has helped save even more time. Keep up the awesome posts!
WOW, thank you!!! I modified it a bit to make it backward compatible with XP and 2003 boxes with a simple IF statement at the top. The reason you’d want to do this is because the RUNAS command causes it not to work correctly…
Having said that, the RUNAS command definite does make the difference on Win7 x64 where I’ve been testing. I don’t know where you dug up the fact that you can pass so many parameters to ShellExecute, I still cannot find an MS doc supporting that reference but I certainly appreciate you sharing it.
Pasting the Vista or above logic below:
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Set oShell = CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)
‘Check for higher than XP & 2003 R2 and only then deal with UAC
If CInt(oShell.RegRead(“HKLM\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\CurrentBuildNumber”)) > 3790 Then
If WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists(“elevated”) = False Then
‘Launch the script again as administrator
CreateObject(“Shell.Application”).ShellExecute “wscript.exe”, “””” & WScript.ScriptFullName & “”” /elevated”, “”, “runas”, 1
WScript.Quit
Else
‘Change the working directory from the system32 folder back to the script’s folder.
Set oShell = CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)
oShell.CurrentDirectory = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”).GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName)
End If
End If
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