UacConsole

User Account Control (UAC) is a Windows feature which acts as a permission manager. It silently monitors program activity and displays a confirmation window when the user or an application attempts to execute certain commands that, in the hand of hackers, could damage the computer and compromise user privacy.

UAC has multiple security levels, from highest to none. It's recommended to keep it active at all times as a safety measure but it can become really annoying to have to confirm it each time you work on the PC. This is particularly irritating when using the Command Prompt for operations because, even after Windows reached its tenth edition, Microsoft has yet to implement a way to easily apply administrative rights to the console interface.

If you get the "access denied" message when trying do execute some commands, you have to exit the console (which means losing all steps taken up until that moment, for example when going to a folder with a long path), look up the cmd tool in Windows, and right-click to be able to launch it as administrator. In this case, you are immediately thrown in the C:\Windows\system32 path, where you have to find your way back to the target directory.

Linux has the advantage of the "sudo" command when using the terminal, which adds elevated rights to the current command. UacConsole is a simple and really practical utility that borrows the "sudo" concept and applies it to Windows. To cut to the chase, it gives you the possibility to work with command prompt as normal, and quickly use elevated rights with the current command by just writing "uac" before the command.

The software application gets installed effortlessly. To test it, you can run cmd regularly, visit the Windows directory (a place where admin rights are needed to do just about anything), and try to create a new empty folder. Without admin rights, you get the "access denied" message. At this point, you would normally have to exit cmd and restart it as admin. Instead, with UacConsole integrated, you can simply write "uac" before the command (e.g. uac md appdir).

The UAC window still requires confirmation but, even so, the operation is much faster. Afterward, you can visit the Windows directory to see the newly created folder. More importantly than creating new folders as admin, you can run setup files or app launchers with "uac" before the command.

Thanks to a helper process called by UacConsole, which remains active while you're tinkering with the current cmd instance, the UAC window only has to be confirmed for the first command; it's skipped afterward. To disable this and confirm it each time (if you want to maintain UAC's intended level of security), you can switch to single call mode with the /s switch (e.g. uac /s dir - lists all files ad admin, in single call mode).

Although the utility hasn't received updates for a long time and likely never will, it works smoothly with Windows 10. It's a simple but terrific helper for users who frequently work with command prompt and daydream about Linux "sudo". There's also a portable edition available for download but has to be manually integrated with Windows (more details in the "Important Notice" section on top of this page).