Open Command Window in Windows x64 mode

Question

I have an application which is installed in x64. I want to execute this EXE in x64 command prompt.

CASE 1:

If I open the command prompt manually as Admin (Start->Type, cmd.exe->Right click->Run as Administrator) then the EXE works fine. I get the following specifications about the Environment variables using SET command in cmd window:

CommonProgramFiles=c:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=c:\Program Files\Common Files
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64

CASE 2:

If I open the Command window using a script file which elevates to the Admin rights then the EXE is not found. I get the following values for the environments variables by using SET command:

CommonProgramFiles=c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86
PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432=AMD64
ProgramFiles=c:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramFiles(x86)=c:\Program Files (x86)

winSysFolder=System32

Question: I have to work with Case 2. I think that the discrepancy in the paths of ProgramFiles could be the reason of my EXE not working in the second case. How can I specify in the script that it should be executed in x64 command prompt?

PS: The link to my main problem is here.

References: The script file to elevate to Admin has been taken from Matt's answer given here.

Answer 1

It looks like you are using a 32-bit executable to run the batch file with elevated privileges. In this case the batch file is executed with 32-bit cmd.exe in %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64, see the Microsoft articles:

• File System Redirector
• WOW64 Implementation Details
• Registry Keys Affected by WOW64

As the batch file is already executed with elevated privileges and just needs to be processed by 64-bit cmd.exe on 64-bit Windows, here are the few lines to make sure that the batch file is executed by 64-bit Windows command interpreter on 64-bit Windows.

@echo off
if "%ProgramFiles(x86)%" == "" goto MainCode
if not exist %SystemRoot%\Sysnative\cmd.exe goto MainCode
%SystemRoot%\Sysnative\cmd.exe /C "%~f0" %*
goto :EOF

:MainCode
set Program
pause

Put your main batch code below the label :Maincode.

The first IF condition jumps to main batch code if the batch file is running on 32-bit Windows where the environment variable ProgramFiles(x86) does not exist at all.

The second IF condition only executed on 64-bit Windows jumps to main batch code if it can find the file %SystemRoot%\Sysnative\cmd.exe because the batch file is processed already by 64-bit cmd.exe.

Sysnative is not a directory. It is a special alias which exists only when 32-bit environment is active on 64-bit Windows. For that reason it is only possible to use if exist %SystemRoot%\Sysnative\* (check for any file), but not if exist %SystemRoot%\Sysnative (check for directory).

For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.

• cmd /?
• echo /?
• goto /?
• if /?
• pause /?
• set /?

Answer 2

The simplest way is to use the SysNative path. Here is a modified version of your RunAsAdmin.cmd (which was originally posted here: How can I auto-elevate my batch file, so that it requests from UAC administrator rights if required?) that does that:

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Elevate.cmd - Version 4
:: Automatically check & get admin rights
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 @echo off
 CLS
 ECHO.
 ECHO =============================
 ECHO Running Admin shell
 ECHO =============================

:init
 setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
 set cmdInvoke=0
 set winSysFolder=System32
 IF EXIST %SystemRoot%\SysNative\cmd.exe set winSysFolder=SysNative
 set "batchPath=%~0"
 for %%k in (%0) do set batchName=%%~nk
 set "vbsGetPrivileges=%temp%\OEgetPriv_%batchName%.vbs"
 setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

:checkPrivileges
  NET FILE 1>NUL 2>NUL
  if '%errorlevel%' == '0' ( goto gotPrivileges ) else ( goto getPrivileges )

:getPrivileges
  if '%1'=='ELEV' (echo ELEV & shift /1 & goto gotPrivileges)
  ECHO.
  ECHO **************************************
  ECHO Invoking UAC for Privilege Escalation
  ECHO **************************************

  ECHO Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%vbsGetPrivileges%"
  ECHO args = "ELEV " >> "%vbsGetPrivileges%"
  ECHO For Each strArg in WScript.Arguments >> "%vbsGetPrivileges%"
  ECHO args = args ^& strArg ^& " "  >> "%vbsGetPrivileges%"
  ECHO Next >> "%vbsGetPrivileges%"

  if '%cmdInvoke%'=='1' goto InvokeCmd 

  ECHO UAC.ShellExecute "!batchPath!", args, "", "runas", 1 >> "%vbsGetPrivileges%"
  goto ExecElevation

:InvokeCmd
  ECHO args = "/c """ + "!batchPath!" + """ " + args >> "%vbsGetPrivileges%"
  ECHO UAC.ShellExecute "%SystemRoot%\%winSysFolder%\cmd.exe", args, "", "runas", 1 >> "%vbsGetPrivileges%"

:ExecElevation
 "%SystemRoot%\%winSysFolder%\WScript.exe" "%vbsGetPrivileges%" %*
 exit /B

:gotPrivileges
 setlocal & pushd .
 cd /d %~dp0
 if '%1'=='ELEV' (del "%vbsGetPrivileges%" 1>nul 2>nul  &  shift /1)

 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 ::START
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 REM Run shell as admin (example) - put here code as you like
 ewfmgr c: -enable
 pause
 cmd /k