With the release of Windows Vista came some new security features. User Account Control (UAC) was one of these. While a much needed feature for security, it can get rather annoying very quickly. Windows 7 offered up more control over the behavior of UAC, but unless you completely disable it (not recommended!) it can still sometimes be a bit intrusive.
Now, let’s say you have a program that needs administrative rights to run properly, and you also need to run that program as your system starts up. You can set the shortcut to run as administrator and manually run it each time, or you can follow this guide and have it automatically run as administrator each time the system starts up.
This guide will show you how to run any program or script with administrative rights upon logging in using the Windows built-in Task Scheduler, without any UAC prompts or modifying your UAC settings.
In the example, I’m going to create a task that will run the previously mentioned application BatteryCare on system startup with higher privileges, without displaying UAC prompts. Using the method shown below, you can run any task you want.
This works with both Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Start the Task Scheduler by clicking the Start Orb, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then click on Task Scheduler.
You must have administrative rights to create your task.
Click Create Task in the right hand Actions menu. Give your task a name and check the box next to Run with highest privileges.
Adding a new task in Windows 7 Task Scheduler
Next, go to the Triggers tab and click New. In the drop down select At Logon. Select Any User.
Adding a trigger to a task
Next, go to the Actions tab and click New. Select Start a program from the drop down and Browse to your desired script or shortcut. Click OK.
Configuring the action to take when task runs
I had a problem where BatteryCare wouldn’t start up unless I was running on AC power. When I was on battery I still had to manually start it until I found out what the problem was.
On the Conditions tab, uncheck the box next to Start the task only if the computer is on AC power, if you wish your task to run all the time.
Setting conditions on a task
That’s it! Save your task and the next time you login it will run with administrative rights automatically!
