[SOLVED] Running things as admin

[nbartolo7]

Never really understood what "running as administrator" did for exe. programs or cmd, or what have you. Can you do more things with cmd if you run as admin? What about games and other exe programs? Does it really matter if I right-click run as admin instead of double clicking on it? Is there less chances that the game crashes if I run as admin? Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

Admin has greater access to things.
Greater privileges.
And can do more damage.


On all my systems, there are 3 actual accounts.
MS account - Only used for Windows licensing issues, and in the incredibly rare instance I need something from the MS Store.
Local Admin user - For all admin related functions. Things that NEED administrator access, like Disk Management.
Local Standard user - Daily use case. What I'm using right now.

 

[hotaru.hino]

By default, Windows grants limited permissions to all apps running, even if your account is an Administrator type. By limited permissions, this restricts access to certain locations in storage and RAM locations (basically, the RAM locations owned by the app and shared regions) as well as certain actions in the OS, like setting up user accounts or modifying services. This is to make sure that if the app has a problem or, the more likely reason for this, has malicious intent, it can't do much to the system itself.

For instance, if you ran ransomeware on limited permissions, it'll only be able to encrypt the files you normally have access to. It won't go and encrypt someone else's files if you have another user account on the computer because by default users can't access each other's user folder.

Running as an administrator grants basically unlimited permissions. So that app now has permission to access anything on the system or do anything it wants to the system (well, mostly). With regards to reliability, no, it doesn't increase the app's reliability. In fact, it could decrease overall system reliability if the app has a nasty bug in it.

 

[nbartolo7]

Admin has greater access to things.
Greater privileges.
And can do more damage.


On all my systems, there are 3 actual accounts.
MS account - Only used for Windows licensing issues, and in the incredibly rare instance I need something from the MS Store.
Local Admin user - For all admin related functions. Things that NEED administrator access, like Disk Management.
Local Standard user - Daily use case. What I'm using right now.

Thanks, although that is not what I meant. What I meant was, whichever type of account one may be using, is there any difference in double-clicking a program for it to start, and right-clicking it and running it as administrator? I'm just asking about programs not about entire accounts.

 

[nbartolo7]

Running as an administrator grants basically unlimited permissions. So that app now has permission to access anything on the system or do anything it wants to the system (well, mostly). With regards to reliability, no, it doesn't increase the app's reliability. In fact, it could decrease overall system reliability if the app has a nasty bug in it.

Ok. thanks. But so, say for example for a videogame, will the game run any smoother or be prone to less issues (bugs or crashes) if I right-click on it and run as admin compared to running it normally?

 

[Colif]

Most games shouldn't need to run as admin, unless its Valorant and its anti cheat thinks it owns your PC. They don't need that level of access.

main reason you run as admin on win 10/11 is to stop windows loading the UAC screen again if the program tries to access things it may not normally have access to. Games generally don't do this.