How to Get Rid ‘The request operation requires elevation’ Error Message on Windows 10

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In Windows 10, there are certain operations that require elevation. These include installing programs, changing settings, accessing network resources, etc. If you try to perform one of those actions without being elevated, you receive a prompt asking whether you want to allow it. This prompt appears even if you are already logged into Windows 10 as an administrator.

If you do not see this prompt, you might think that your account does not have administrative privileges. However, this is not necessarily true. You can still access some features of Windows 10 without being an admin. For example, you can install applications, change settings, use built-in tools like Device Manager, etc. But, if you attempt to install software or make changes to system files, you will receive the following error:

“The requested operation requires elevation.”

This happens because most of the things we do in Windows 10 require elevation. In fact, Microsoft recommends that you always run applications under an elevated context.

What are the reasons for the “The requested operation requires elevation” to occur?

This error appears when you attempt to install or uninstall software that requires administrative privileges. You receive this error even though you are running under the same user account that installed the program.

A common cause for this error is installing applications that require elevation without logging out and logging back in again. If you do not log out, the system automatically logs you back in as the current user. When you try to install or uninstall software, the operating system returns an error because it does not know what account you want to use.

Disable the UAC

The User Account Control (UAC) feature in Windows 10 lets you control what programs are allowed to make changes to your system without asking permission. If you don’t want a program to change something on your PC, it won’t ask you for permission unless you specifically allow it to do so. However, disabling UAC could lock you out of your own machine. Here’s how to turn it off.

1. First, open the Start menu and type “cmd.”
2. In the search box, type “command prompt,” hit Enter, and press OK.
3. Now you’re in Command Prompt. Type the following command into the prompt window:
4. net localgroup administrators %selectedaccount% /add
5. You’ll see a list of accounts on your computer. You can use Ctrl+A to select multiple items.
6. Press Enter to confirm each selection. After confirming each account, type the following command:
7. net localgroup administrators %selectedaccount% /add
8. Press Enter again to add the selected account to the administrator group.
9. When finished, type exit to close the Command Prompt window.
10. Restart your computer and log back in. Your UAC setting should now be turned off.

Launch the program as the Administrator

Solution Run the software as the administrator. If you are installing it manually, run the program as the administrator.

(The following steps assume that you installed the program manually.)

1. Open the folder where you saved the downloaded file.
2. Right-click on the icon and select “Run As Administrator”.
3. Click “OK”.
4. When prompted, enter the password for the account that you use to log into Windows.
5. After installation completes, close all open applications and restart the computer.
6. Log out and log back in again.

Start the system file checker manually

If you’re having trouble getting Windows 10 to boot up properly, it could be because there are problems with one or more system files. You might think that you’d have to reinstall Windows, but there’s actually a way around that. Here’s how to fix your PC without needing to do a full re-installation.

1. Open the start menu and click on the Settings app.
2. Under Advanced Options, select Troubleshoot.
3. Select Startup Repair under the heading “System Protection.”
4. Wait while your PC repairs itself. When finished, reboot your computer.
5. Once your PC boots up normally, open Windows Defender and scan for malware.
6. Restart your PC once more.

Take ownership of the hard disk

If you are having trouble accessing files on your computer because someone else has taken ownership of it, follow these steps to take control of the hard drive again.

1. Log out of your user account.
2. Go to the administrator account. If you don’t know how to do this, see our guide here.
3. Click the Start menu and type file explorer.
4. Right-click your hard drive and choose Properties.
5. Select the Security tab and Advanced Settings.
6. Under Owner, choose the user who owns the hard drive and click OK.
7. Save the changes and close the window.
8. Now try logging into your account again.

Reset folder permissions

The ‘Local Security Settings’ allows you to control the access level of folders and files. You can set the local security setting to ‘require authorization for changes to contents’ or ‘allow all programs full control over the computer’. If you want to change the default setting, select ‘Change system defaults’. Then, follow the instructions.

To reset folder permissions, you need to go through User Account Control. Press Enter. In the command prompt window, type the following commands one by one:

• net user Administrator /active:yes
• net use Z: \\server\sharename /delete
• net use Z: /d
• net use Z: \\\server\sharename /delete

For example, if you are trying to reset the folder permissions of my documents folder, you would enter the following commands:

Creating a new administrator account

Creating a new administrator account in Windows 10 is easy. All you need is a command prompt window and some patience. Let’s go over how to do it step-by-step.

1. the command prompt: To open the command prompt, press Win+X keys together on your keyboard. Then type cmd into the box and hit Enter. You will see something like this:
2. Type net user: Type net user into the command prompt window and hit Enter. A list of accounts will pop up. Select the one called Administrator and hit Enter again.
3. Change the password: Now select the password field and change it to whatever you want. Hit Enter twice to confirm. If you are asked to restart your computer, say yes. Otherwise, everything else is done. Now you can log in as a new administrator.

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