How to request Administrator access inside a batch

Question

I am trying to write a batch file for my users to run from their Vista machines with UAC. The file is re-writing their hosts file, so it needs to be run with Administrator permissions. I need to be able to send them an email with a link to the .bat file. The desired behavior is that when they right-click on the file and say Open, they will get one of those UAC dialogs that makes the screen go dark and forces them to answer whether they want to give the application permission to run as administrator. Instead, they are just seeing "Access denied" on the command line window.

Is this possible to do differently?

Answer 1

This script does the trick! Just paste it into the top of your bat file. If you want to review the output of your script, add a "pause" command at the bottom of your batch file.

UPDATE: This script is now slightly edited to support command line arguments and a 64 bit OS.

Thank you Eneerge @ https://sites.google.com/site/eneerge/scripts/batchgotadmin

@echo off

:: BatchGotAdmin
:-------------------------------------
REM  --> Check for permissions
    IF "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%" EQU "amd64" (
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64\config\system"
) ELSE (
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system"
)

REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' (
    echo Requesting administrative privileges...
    goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )

:UACPrompt
    echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    set params= %*
    echo UAC.ShellExecute "cmd.exe", "/c ""%~s0"" %params:"=""%", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"

    "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    exit /B

:gotAdmin
    pushd "%CD%"
    CD /D "%~dp0"
:--------------------------------------    
    <YOUR BATCH SCRIPT HERE>

Answer 2

use the runas command. But, I don't think you can email a .bat file easily.

Answer 3

Based on post by toster-cx and other interesting posts on this page, I got insight on how to configure and solve my problem. I had similar issue where I wished that Disk Cleanup utility runs every week twice on Monday and Thursday during lunch hours (say 2 pm). However, this required elevated rights.

Sharing batch file which might help other beginners like me -

@echo off
echo  Welcome to scheduling 'PC Maintenance Activity'
ping localhost -n 3 >nul
echo -- Step - 1 of 3 : Please give 'Admin' rights on next screen
ping localhost -n 5 >nul
if not "%1"=="am_admin" (powershell start -verb runas '%0' am_admin & exit)
cls
echo -- Step - 2 of 3 : In next screen, select temp areas for cleaning 
during routine scheduled activity
ping localhost -n 3 >nul
C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe /sageset:112
cls
echo    Now scheduling maintenance activity...
SchTasks /Create /SC WEEKLY /D MON,THU /TN PC_Cleanup /TR 
"C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe "/sagerun:112 /ST 14:00

cls

echo                         -- Thanks for your co-operation --
echo                    -- Maintenance activity is scheduled for --
echo                       -- Every Monday and Thursday at 2 pm --

ping localhost -n 10 >nul

Thanks a lot for this forum and Rems POST here [https://www.petri.com/forums/forum/windows-scripting/general-scripting/32313-schtasks-exe-need-to-pass-parameters-to-script][1]

His post helped for configuring optional argument while scheduling the task.

Answer 4

@echo off and title can come before this code:

net session>nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel%==0 goto main
echo CreateObject("Shell.Application").ShellExecute "%~f0", "", "", "runas">"%temp%/elevate.vbs"
"%temp%/elevate.vbs"
del "%temp%/elevate.vbs"
exit

:main
    <code goes here>
exit

A lot of the other answers are overkill if you don't need to worry about the following:

• Parameters
• Working Directory (cd %~dp0 will change to the directory containing the batch file)

Answer 5

Since I have troubles with this script popping up a new command prompt with itself run again, in infinite loop (using Win 7 Pro), I suggest you try another approach :How can I auto-elevate my batch file, so that it requests from UAC administrator rights if required?

Be careful, you have to add this at the end of script, as stated in an edit, so that you are back to script directory after privileges were elevated : cd /d %~dp0

Answer 6

Another approach is to

• create a shortcut locally and set it to call for Admin permission [Properties, Advanced, Run as Admin]

and then

• send your users the shortcut [or a link to the shortcut rather than one to the batch file itself].

Denis

[Added afterwards - Yes, I did fail to notice the date of this thread.]