About

superUser is a simple and lightweight utility to start any process as the System user with Trusted Installer privileges.

Supported operating systems: Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista.

How It Works

The program acquires the TrustedInstaller process' access token and creates a new (user-specified) process as the System user with Trusted Installer privileges using this token.

Usage

There are two ways to run the program:

From the File Explorer

Double-click the Windows version (superUserW.exe), grant administrator privileges and wait for a command prompt to appear.

From the Command Prompt

Run the command-line version (superUser.exe or sudo.exe) from the command prompt opened as administrator, using the following arguments:

superUser [options] [command_to_run]

command_to_run is the command line used to create the new process. It is a filename followed by arguments. If not specified, cmd.exe is started.

This filename can be:

• An executable name (the .exe extension can be omitted).
• A batch name (.cmd or .bat).

Options

| Option | Meaning | |:------:|-------------------------------------------------------------| | /h | Display the help message. | | /m | Minimize the created window. | | /s | The child process shares the parent's console. Requires /w. | | /v | Display verbose messages with progress information. | | /w | Wait for the child process to finish. Used for scripts.<br />Returns the exit code of the child process. |

• You can also use a dash (-) in place of a slash (/) in front of an option.
• Multiple options can be grouped together (e.g., /ws is equivalent to /w /s).

Notes

The /ws options allow you to run a process in a completely transparent way:

• The new process runs in the same window and performs its inputs and outputs there.
• The exit code of the new process is returned and you can retrieve it with the errorlevel variable.

Examples

Open a command prompt as administrator to run these commands.

superUser64 /ws whoami /user
superUser64 /ws whoami /groups | find "TrustedInstaller"
superUser64 /w my_script.cmd arg1 arg2

Exit Codes

| Exit Code | Meaning | |:---------:|--------------------------------------------------------| | 1 | Invalid argument. | | 2 | Failed to acquire SeDebugPrivilege. | | 3 | Failed to open/start TrustedInstaller process/service. | | 4 | Process creation failed (prints error code). | | 5 | Another fatal error occurred. |

If the /w option is specified, the exit code of the child process is returned. If superUser fails, it returns a code from -1000001 to -1000005 (e.g., -1000002 instead of 2).

sudo

sudo.exe is a simpler version of superUser.

It is equivalent to superUser /ws.

• The child process runs in the same window and performs its inputs and outputs there.
• sudo waits for this process to finish and returns its exit code.

Usage is the same as superUser, except that the s, v, and w options do not exist.

Examples

Open a command prompt as administrator to run these commands.

sudo64 whoami /user
sudo64 whoami /groups | find "TrustedInstaller"
sudo64 my_script.cmd arg1 arg2

superUserW

superUserW.exe is the Windows version of superUser.

Choose this version when not launched from the command prompt or a script, but for example from File Explorer, by double-clicking, a context menu or a shortcut.

Like Windows applications, it does not create a console window at startup (no unwanted window flashing). Messages (errors, help) are displayed in Windows dialog boxes.

Otherwise, the usage remains the same as the command-line versions. By default, cmd.exe is started. To launch another application, specify its name as a parameter (e.g., in the shortcut or context menu).

Note that the s and v options do not exist.