How to create a Run As Administrator shortcut using Powershell

In my PowerShell script, I create a shortcut to a .exe (using something similar to the answer from [this question][1]):

$WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$Home\Desktop\ColorPix.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = "C:\Program Files (x86)\ColorPix\ColorPix.exe"
$Shortcut.Save()

Now, when I create the shortcut, how do I add to the script to make it default to running as Administrator?

[1]:

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"this question"

This answer is a PowerShell translation of an excellent answer to this question

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.

In short, you need to read the .lnk file in as an array of bytes. Locate byte 21 (0x15) and change bit 6 (0x20) to 1. This is the RunAsAdministrator flag. Then you write you byte array back into the .lnk file.

In your code this would look like this:

$WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$Home\Desktop\ColorPix.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = "C:\Program Files (x86)\ColorPix\ColorPix.exe"
$Shortcut.Save()

$bytes = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("$Home\Desktop\ColorPix.lnk")
$bytes[0x15] = $bytes[0x15] -bor 0x20 #set byte 21 (0x15) bit 6 (0x20) ON
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllBytes("$Home\Desktop\ColorPix.lnk", $bytes)

If anybody want to change something else in a `.LNK` file you can refer to [official Microsoft documentation][1].


[1]:

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You can use the -Elevate true switch for this:

CreateShortcut -name "myApp" -Target
"${env:ProgramFiles}\mApp\myApp.exe" -OutputDirectory
"C:\Users\Public\Desktop" -Elevated True