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windowspowershellsudo

How to sudo on powershell on Windows

Whenever I need to run a powershell script it complains of security, if I add powershell.exe -nologo -executionpolicy bypass -File .\install.ps1 I still get permission denied unauthorizedAccessException. I just want to run this install script, what is the sudo equivalent to type on the powershell on windows?

Edit:

It's 2024 now and we are getting actual sudo for Windows 11

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/introducing-sudo-for-windows/

See the repository for additional details

https://github.com/microsoft/sudo

Solution

  • Note: If you're looking to add general-purpose, prepackaged sudo-like functionality to PowerShell, consider the
    Enter-AdminPSSession (psa) function from this Gist, discussed in the bottom section of this answer.

    If you are running from PowerShell already, then use Start-Process -Verb RunAs as follows:

    Start-Process -Verb RunAs powershell.exe -Args "-executionpolicy bypass -command Set-Location \`"$PWD\`"; .\install.ps1"

    Note:

    • The script invariably runs in a new window.
    • Since the new window's working directory is invariably $env:windir\System32, a Set-Location call that switches to the caller's working directory ($PWD) is prepended.
      • Note that in PowerShell (Core) 7+ (pwsh.exe) this is no longer necessary, because the caller's current location is inherited.
    • Executing Set-Location necessitates the use of -Command instead of -File.
      • A general caveat is that -Command can change the way arguments passed to your script are interpreted (there are none in your case), because they are interpreted the same way they would be if you passed the arguments from within PowerShell, whereas -File treats them as literals.

    If you're calling from outside of PowerShell, typically from cmd.exe/ a batch file, you need to wrap the above in an outer call to powershell.exe, which complicates things in terms of quoting, unfortunately:

    powershell.exe -command "Start-Process -Verb RunAs powershell.exe -Args '-executionpolicy bypass -command', \"Set-Location `\"$PWD`\"; .\install.ps1\""

    Interactively, of course, you can:

    • Right-click the PowerShell shortcut (in your taskbar or Start Menu, or on your Desktop), select Run as Administrator to open a PowerShell window that runs with admin privileges, and run .\install.ps1 from there.

    • Alternatively, from an existing PowerShell window, you can open a run-as-admin window with Start-Process -Verb RunAs powershell.exe, as in AdminOfThings' answer.