Running Notepad as Administrator in Windows 8

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I needed to edit the hosts file in Windows 8 so that I could sandbox the backend server the app we’re developing accesses. Since most of the tutorials to do so in Windows mention running the Notepad app as administrator were not considering the new Start menu interface, I figured I’d fill the gap.

Select “search” from the mini contextual menu one can bring up by hovering at the bottom-left of the screen (or swiping slightly on the right-side of the screen on touch devices).
Search for “Notepad”
Right-click on the Notepad app and select “Advanced” in the app bar
Select “Run as administrator

Here are some screenshots, for the visual people in the crowd. 🙂

windows

Comments

6 responses to “Running Notepad as Administrator in Windows 8”

January 18, 2012

Alex Mills

Personally I prefer using a shortcut that is run as an administrator. Not sure if it works under Windows 8 but it works great under Windows 7:

http://www.viper007bond.com/2011/08/13/editing-your-hosts-file-in-windows/

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January 22, 2012

Nick Momrik

I ran the Command Line as administrator and launched Notepad from there.

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September 26, 2012

tsaisy

Why in the world would we have to run a search every time we want to run some basic program?

What’s the idea here? take away keyboard shortcuts but have us type in searches instead?

I guess M$’ idea is converting windows into a search engine, until you forget what is part of your system and what is not?

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1. September 26, 2012
  
  Stephane Daury
  
  I’m pretty sure there is a way to pin it in that state to the Start menu (or task bar in standard desktop, which is still available despite the Metro style). Sure all kb shortcuts are still valid, but on a tablet, you do have to have an opportunity to bring the soft kb up, which usually requires some type of input field to be present. Not sure how they’d work with the soft kb. But once docked and a real kb is sync’d (bluetooth, for EG), then it all works as it always has.
  
  Reply
September 16, 2013

Simon

For your specific problem (editing hosts file), why not just change the permissions on the hosts file itself (either set “Full” for “Users”, or just for your specific userid. This is all that is required & works just fine for me…

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1. September 16, 2013
  
  Stephane Daury
  
  I personally wouldn’t recommend that, for security reasons, but that is another way.
  
  Reply