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Andreas
Asked: 2020-02-22 11:12:43 +0800 CST

CMD file just flashes by when running as administrator

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When running a simple batch file (.cmd) as administrator (Rightclick --> Run as administrator), it just flashes by in the taskbar and nothing more is happening.

Running the file by just doubleclicking on it works fine.

Total content of the .cmd file:

@echo off
set /p DUMMY=Done executing...

No logs in the eventviewer or error messages that I have found... Any ideas what to try?

windows-command-prompt windows-server-2016

2 Answers

  1. Characters like space, ampersand, pipeline etc. have a special meaning in Windows command line and should be escaped. Right-click Run as administrator action could be defined for a particular executable file type (extension in PATHEXT variable) in corresponding registry keys - such as in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile for Windows cmd scripts: 

    assoc .cmd & assoc .bat

    .cmd=cmdfile
.bat=batfile

    Right-click Run as administrator actions for these file types are originally defined as follows:

    reg query "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\Shell\runas\command"
reg query "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\Shell\runas\command"

    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\Shell\runas\command
    (Default)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /C "%1" %*

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\Shell\runas\command
    (Default)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /C "%1" %*

    Unfortunately, the double quotes are stripped out (see cmd /?):

    If /C or /K is specified, then the remainder of the command line after the switch is processed as a command line, where the following logic is used to process quote (") characters:
    …
    old behavior is to see if the first character is a quote character and if so, strip the leading character and remove the last quote character on the command line, preserving any text after the last quote character.

    Hence, we need to invoke the following command instead:

    %SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /C ""%1" %*"
rem                              ↑       ↑

    To do that, open an elevated command prompt and run the following commands (run the reg add command for batfile as well, mutatis mutandis):

    set auxvar=^%SystemRoot^%\System32\cmd.exe
reg add "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\Shell\runas\command" /ve /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%auxvar% /C \"\"%1\" %*\"" /f

    The operation completed successfully.

    reg query "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\Shell\runas\command"

    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\Shell\runas\command
    (Default)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /C ""%1" %*"

    If you prefer doing that from a .bat or .cmd script, then the reg add command should read as follows:

    reg add "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\Shell\runas\command" /ve /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%%SystemRoot%%\System32\cmd.exe /C \"\"%%1\" %%*\"" /f
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  2. It is because of the path the file is located in. The path cannot contain an "&" sign, and also a combination of "@" and a space doesn't work either:

    C:/temp/test.cmd - Works!

    C:/temp&/test.cmd - Doesn't work!

    C:/temp &/test.cmd - Doesn't work!

    C:/temp@/test.cmd - Works!

    C:/temp @/test.cmd - Doesn't work!

    Makes sense right? :) Windows bug...

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