Using “Run as Administrator” does nothing at all

I am using Windows 7 PC and have local administrator rights on this PC. Recently, when I right-click an icon in Windows Explorer and select Run as Administrator nothing happens. No window is opened at all, and I see no process being started using Process Explorer. I also get the same behavior when using the Ctrl+Shift+Enter keys in the Start menu’s search box, as suggested at HowToGeek. What could the problem be?

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5 Answers

The problem is because some software that you installed recently affected the context menu which now causes the "Run as Admin" selection to not work. See the top answer of the following question for more information.

In my case it was NCH Express Zip. In order to track down the culprit, look at all the context menu options and uninstall the associated software. Check if you got it working, if not, uninstall the next software - rinse and repeat until you find the culprit!

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Running program with administrator privileges requires the Application Information service. If that service is not running, then you can no longer run things with admin privileges, and worse, you cannot even start it. Check the services snap-in (services.msc) and make sure that it is not disabled or stopped. If it is, then set it to Manual and reboot.

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1. Make sure that the service "Secondary Login" is enabled and set to start automatically, and that it is started.

2. Download this link and run it. It is from symantec and makes sure that .exe files are setup properly in the registry to run.

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Does double clicking directly work? If not, there may be something wrong with the program you are trying to launch. Alternatively, you can try typing command prompt in start menu and try start command prompt as admin.

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This isn't a solution, technically, but a workaround. I noticed that you can run the equivalent of "cmd.exe" using the another version of Run As Administrator, but only for the Powershell shortcut. The Powershell shortcut has it's own Run As Administrator. I tested it, and it actually "works" even on a machine that can't run cmd.exe as an admin.

Hit Windows key and type Powershell

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