The requested operation requires elevation in Windows Vista
Posted by andy gaskell on Dec 13th, 2006
So I’ve been using Vista for a few weeks now and for whatever crazy reason I decided I needed to flush dns. I received this message: “The requested operation requires elevation”. Okay, to get around this go to All Programs, Accessories, right click Command Prompt and click Run as administrator. Good to go!
Update:
I’ve been running Vista for quite some time now and finally got fed up with User Account Control (UAC). What UAC really turns into is security by nagging so I disabled it altogether. To disable UAC open the Control Panel/User Accounts then click Turn User Account Control on or off. Uncheck the box. Click OK.
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Thanks that was brill, been looking everywhere for this its done my head in
May 10th, 2007 at 4:51 am
BIG HELP! :) thanks
May 31st, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Excellent. Thanks, saved me a minimum of $20.
June 6th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
I have been having frustrated by UAC since I bought a new laptop with vista a week ago. And thanks to you, I am now back to the good old easy way of using windoze without UAC.
June 8th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
This was great help, its been a bitch using vista. Slowly, with forums like this, we escape its bitchiness.
Thanks Again!!
July 4th, 2007 at 9:39 am
I was trying to download my old programs to vista, and it kept giving me that message about “elevation”, so I tried disabling as you said… and I now am able to download all my old stuff back now. Thanks!
July 5th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Thanks for the tip. It solved so many frustrating hours on Vista!
July 16th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Yup – really useful – I thought I was going mad when I saw this message, it was a new one on me. Many thanks for sharing the info.
July 21st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
THANKS A MILLIONS!!!! IF ANYONE IS HAVING PROBS WITH ANY OTHER S/W, SIMPLY RIGHT-CLICK (USALLY THE .EXE FILE) AND AS ABOVE RUN AS ADMIN.
CHEERS!!!!
August 1st, 2007 at 10:55 am
Thanks a lot for this. I work for Verizon DSL Tech Support and this has been a great reference to me when I had no idea what that meant.
August 6th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Many thanks for the info on “the requested operation requires elevation”. I’m new to Windows Vista, and especially appreciate your plain English instructions, as I don’t speak computerese. Saved me a lot of time and aggravation.
August 10th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Thanks, your post was a big help! Flushdns is a necessity at times…
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:17 am
Thanks so much for the clear and easy answer. I’ve just hunted around several different websites and didn’t find a clear answer to this question. There was alot of complicated responses from people who work for Microsuxs, but this by far was the best on the net!
September 7th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Well, I’m a Sys Admin who specifically ordered my new laptop with Vista so I can start testing the new Vista features. We use XP here right now, but Vista is inevitable, so I don’t want to turn off the UAC stuff
But in order to keep doing my job without it driving me nuts, I’ve created a desktop shortcut to the cmd prompt. When I need to run with elevated privileges, I right-click that icon and select “Run as Administrator” from the menu there.
Kind of a workaround, but it makes it a lot easier than navigating several menus deep to run it…
September 7th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Sorry to be dumb but when I go to accessories/click on command prompt and choose run as administrator, another window opens to a C prompt. What do I do then?? Please help
September 11th, 2007 at 2:30 am
Hi ,
thankyou very much for this info. I am an ISP Technician. very new to win Vista. Onetime i had to reset the Winsock, and when we were doing that, we got the error about elevation. I just googled and got your link which was very helpful. Thankyou.
September 15th, 2007 at 5:21 am
OMG Thank U for a easier and understandable way to do this.
I couldn’t install Office 2003 nor unistall MSN Messenger because of the UAC.
I had to toy w/ my Vista crap for quite a while before I found answer. At least you made it easy, unlike MSN blogs and a few others that make no sense to us normal non computer tech people.I know where to come to for when I have more problems or questions.li
September 16th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Thank you so much!! YOU SAVED ME A BUNCH OF MONEY!! Thought I had to buy a program again!!
September 22nd, 2007 at 5:36 am
definitely this was a big help for a newbie on vista like me . . . it came first on google search
September 23rd, 2007 at 8:24 pm
FYI – I found this post on a MSDN forum site… thanks to this guy!
Try to run the Command Prompt with elevated privileges before running the “route” command. Simply right-click the “Command Prompt” and choose to “Run as Administrator”. That will initiate the UAC prompt for elevated privileges. If you are a member of the local administrator-group you should simply have to select continue, otherwise you need to enter the administrative password.
Regards
Johan Lindfors
Microsoft AB
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:05 am
Fantastic Article!
10 out of 10 and right on the money!
October 24th, 2007 at 6:27 am
[...] took exactly 3 days before I went in and disabled UAC (directions here). As a friend at work stated “UAC is great if you don’t know anything about computers [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:11 pm
The requested operation requires elevation in Windows Vista…
THANKS GaSKELL.ORG!!!!
So I’ve been using Vista for a few weeks now and for whatever crazy reason I decided I needed to flush dns. I received this message: “The requested operation requires elevation”. Okay, to get around this go to All Programs,…
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
AMIN!!! Thanks!!! saved me to install win98 on my lap, lol :))
December 24th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
tried everything. Still cannot access certain folders. Permission denied. Can’t share some foders. Vista is @#$%^
January 9th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Thanks a million!
January 16th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Great, just what I was looking for!
Thanks for enlightening us and saving a lot of frustration over UAC.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Thanks for the tip! Awesome!
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:15 am
Um, just right click on the command promt icon & select properties.
Click on Advanced button on the shortcut tab
Enable “run as administrator”
now run command prompt and you can flush the dns cache without opening up Vista’s security…
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
You don’t know what you’re talking about – UAC RULEZ!!!!
Also, you smell like month-old cabbage.
January 25th, 2008 at 7:54 am
You are the MAN !!!!
January 25th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Thanks for that! Was a huge help while trying to update my graphics card drivers!
January 26th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Thanks so much – fixed it in no time. Saved me 3 hours worth of work
January 31st, 2008 at 9:17 am
Awsome Thanks!
January 31st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Thanks – I really needed this tip!
February 11th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Nice one, thank you very much!
February 14th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I know that I sound like all the other responders, but, thanks so much. This helped immensely.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Thanks a bunch! I too had problems flushing the dns and googled “the requested operation requires elevation” and this was the first result! Yay for blogs. Yah for google!
March 17th, 2008 at 8:49 am
i needed to do that to get my Messenger to work, but everytime i click on Command Prompt, a window with black background pops up
i dont know how where i’m supposed to click “run”
please help?
March 18th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Thanks for your information, it’s useful for me
March 25th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Thanks for the help. Now another to deal with another wall.
March 30th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I love you. I was going nuts.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:42 am
Just curious if anyone knows WHY we have to do this – my account already is an Administrator account. “Administrator” is defined on the User Accounts – Change Your Account Type screen as “Administrators have complete access to the computer and can make any desired changes…” which seems to contradict the behavior.
April 20th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Great, thanks! Does anyone know if a shortcut to cmd.exe can be configured to always run as Administrator?
April 25th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Does anyone know if a shortcut to cmd.exe can be configured to always run as Administrator? Just create a desktop shortcut for cmd.exe (from Accessories>Command Prompt>(right click)Send To>Desktop. Then right-click on the shortuct, select Properties>Shortcut>Advanced. Then tick/check the box Run As Administrator. Job done! Btw, thanks muchly for the tip on req op req elevation!!
April 27th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Does anyone know if a shortcut to cmd.exe can be configured to always run as Administrator? Yes, first create a desktop shortcut to cmd.exe (from Accessories>Command Prompt (right-click)>Send to>Desktop).
Right-click on this desktop shortcut then select Properties>Shortcut>Advanced. Click/tick the box next to Run As Administrator, then OK, OK. Now when you click on the shortcut it always opens cmd.exe as Administrator:Command Prompt and you won’t get any “requires elevation” frustration.
April 27th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Thanks for that
April 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Does anyone know if a shortcut to cmd.exe can be configured to always run as Administrator? Yes, right-click on shortcut, then select Properties>Shortcut>Advanced. Then click/tick the box next to Run As Administrator, then OK, OK. Now when you click on the cmd.exe shortcut it will run as Administrator:Command Prompt every time.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Thank you very much! I was surprised to get a command prompt; I get nostalgic when I have to recall my DOS knowledge.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:05 am
Thanks! The “error message” was completely mystifying otherwise. Curious that an administrator user does not run as administrator.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thank you so much for the advice!!! It not only solved all of the issues I have been having with Vista, but also changed opinions all around about Vista!!!! If it wasn’t for this priceless information, we would have been installing XP again! Thanks again…..hats off to you:)
July 16th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
thanks bro, save the day
July 21st, 2008 at 8:11 pm
THANK YOU
July 26th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Thanks, short answer & right into the point!
July 28th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Wow.. such an easy fix for six months of frustration.
Aloha ~
July 28th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Thank you, now I can get back to my rosetta stone software.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Great advice and very clearly explained. Thanks
September 6th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Great help! Thanks.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Great Help. Thanks!
September 21st, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Hey Thanks Andy. It really helped a lot.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Thanks!
October 26th, 2008 at 10:10 am
THANK YOU!
October 28th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I have UAC disabled & did the run as admin (and my account is admin also)and still getting the elevated error. Any ideas?
October 28th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
@awm050501 what application are you trying to run?
December 10th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Thanks… It’s helpfull… :)
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Thanks man. It’s been my problem since I started using Vista. This version of Windows have a lot of problems.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Can this also address the bluetooth problem I’m having? I’m using a WIDCOMM Bluetooth device.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:40 am
[...] Fuentes: mydigitallife | Gaskell [...]
January 19th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Thanks a big help!
January 28th, 2009 at 1:47 am
The Widcomm Bluetooth (ioGear right?) comes with the wrong drivers and the listed ones on the ioGear site don’t work either. You need the version 6 drivers. If you have the GBU421 and need Vista 64Bit for instance, use the GBU321 version 6.0 Vista 64bit drivers, they work great. http://www.iogear.com/support/dm/driver/GBU321 (GBU221-321v.zip). Good luck.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Thanks alot! Really did the trick!
January 30th, 2009 at 9:50 am
THANKS MAN!
February 5th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Thanks for the Widcomm Iogear advice. It’s exactly the help I needed!!
February 6th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Hi, None of the messenger clients work on my vista. I get ‘Make sure you are connected to Internet…’ error. I tried disabling firewall, anti-virus and tried the above suggestion too. Even reached out to yahoo, msn, still no resolution. Any secret switch in there…?
February 25th, 2009 at 2:08 am
thanks a mill this issue has bothered me for weeks
March 4th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
please help – i am trying to download word to my laptop and keeps telling me “opertion requires elevation” please help me
March 21st, 2009 at 9:54 am
Hi.
I did exactly what you said, and still coming up with the same problem. I’m trying to install a web cam. any ideas??
April 13th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Thanks dude. It was a big help.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Amazingly, I found it by searching on Google. Thank you for this straight-forward answer!!!
April 19th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Hey, thanks a lot! That was really helpful! :)
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:02 am
The requested operation requires elevation in Windows Vista was getting message while trying to release ip. But now its looking possible. I will try later to release my ip and check, whether it’s working or not.
thanks
April 28th, 2009 at 1:20 am
Great! It helps a lot!
April 29th, 2009 at 9:13 am
cheers, saved me, that elevation thing had me stumped
May 15th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
It didn’t even crossed my mind, big tanks
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
UAC is an awesome feature of blocking spyware and adware from installing in the background. With UAC disabled, unwanted programs can install in the background easier and unwanted.
UAC will never be disabled on my machine.
I’ve setup two accounts on my machine:
Admin and Tyler.
Tyler is a standard user account.
Admin is an administrator account.
When using the computer normally, i use Tyler account, as to protect windows system files from unwanted changes.
UAC is AWESOME!
June 12th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Thanks buddy. I could not even install MS Office with this stupid UAC swithed on!
However I agree with Tyler: only disable UAC for the system administrator !
June 15th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thank you for this page, as I was hoping to flush the DNS as well and ran into this issue. Your solution worked perfectly. Thank you again.
I hate UAC.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
UAC is a great security tool that you want to think twice before turning off. It does get annoying sometimes, but all other operating systems have similar security standards.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I ran into this problem setting up my husband’s new laptop that shipped with Vista Home Premium. I was installing some legacy programs from CD and ran into this a few times. I disabled the UAC to continue installing all his programs, then when I was done, I renabled it. This let me do my work without interruption, but preserves the security while he’s using it. I recommend that course rather than leaving the admin account wide open.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Darn good..
Was about to destroy this computer..Helped a great deal..thx man..
Enjoy..forums rock
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:13 am
Thanks.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Excellent help. THANKS!!!!
August 27th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
finally found what i was looking for cheers
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Excuse me, but I just read this thread and it said the following, and I quote; “Does anyone know if a shortcut to cmd.exe can be configured to always run as Administrator? Just create a desktop shortcut for cmd.exe (from Accessories>Command Prompt>(right click)Send To>Desktop. Then right-click on the shortuct, select Properties>Shortcut>Advanced. Then tick/check the box Run As Administrator. Job done! Btw, thanks muchly for the tip on req op req elevation!!”
This is a solution to a problem that is manufactured into the OS? I am set up as the sys admin. WTF do I need yet another way to get privileges that am set up to already have on a computer that I just bought 6 hours ago?
Thanks for the great info??? Are you all stupid?
Throw your PC’s into the sea.
There is no excuse for BS like this being programmed into the OS. Oh, wait, unless the real money is being made by selling service plans.
“F” off MS!
September 25th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Hi,
It still have error and even worse that WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe is not applicable for your vista computer :-(
Pls help me please
saundoo@gmail.com
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Great info.. just encountered such issue in Vista today since I really need to flush dns…
December 29th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I see that you answered the above question about Vista. How do you handle: The requested operation requires elevation with Windows 7?
January 29th, 2010 at 5:40 am
hey very good.i dont know who r u but thanks for sharing and saving time of who r searching for this
February 20th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Nice Stuff you’ve got in here mate. It’s been really helpful and handy. lol
August 11th, 2010 at 7:40 am
Thanks a lot…worked for me :)
August 26th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
omg thank you soooo much ! i’ve been trying to figure it out for weeks now ! i couldn’t even ipconfig/release or /renew. now it all works !
September 16th, 2010 at 3:39 am
Thanks a ton!
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:52 am
The procedure works for Wins7.
But it doesn’t work if you are user Wins 7 – WinXP Virtual PC.
November 7th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
…..i love whoever wrote this….you made my day….
November 9th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Some of us don’t have the Disable UAC option in our control panel.
Nice of MSoft to find another way to FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL. Endless creativity.
November 19th, 2010 at 12:41 am
excelente supe la ayuda gracias
October 4th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
“The required operation requires elevation”. I am operating and VAIO with Windows 7. I was trying to download a program and received the message above. To fix this I went to documents/download and then right clicked on the program and then clicked “Run as administrator”. User accounts is not the same in Windows 7.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:47 am
Excellent, I was looking for this, I have a windows 7 machine here in Miami and was giving me the same error msg. Thanks Andy
November 1st, 2011 at 12:01 am
Hi Andy,
great blog – helped with an old prob!
I know this is anal, but could you correct the Typo in your Title ? It lets down your nice site :–]
All the best,
Paul. ( old university man )
Oh – ‘teh’ !
November 1st, 2011 at 12:10 am
Ah – meant to say : Thanks for the valiable tip from RADA119 – it works!
Thank you for clearing up an old problem with Vista.
November 7th, 2011 at 11:14 am
Thanx so much.!! Was realy helpful. Had been looking 4 tat flushing dns server cache evrywer.
December 2nd, 2011 at 8:57 am
Thank you so much. This was very helpful.
It WORKS……! :)
December 21st, 2011 at 2:41 am
thx. it is very useful trick.
May 23rd, 2012 at 5:20 am
[...] The requested operation requires elevation in Windows VistaDec 13, 2006 … So I’ve been using Vista for a few weeks now and for whatever crazy reason I decided I needed to flush dns. I received this message: “The … [...]
June 22nd, 2012 at 10:28 am
Thanks a lot….it ws a grt hlp!!
July 17th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Ok that’s great and all. but
When i click “Run as administrator”, it asks for the username and password and when i type it it says “The requested operation requires elevation” :\
So i have to get rid of that error to…get rid of the error ??!