In Windows Vista, you have limited privileges on the machine, although you’re a power user. This means that programs you run have limited permissions, and you must elevate your privileges whenever you want to perform certain administrative-tasks, such as changing system settings or installing programs.

So, for instance, when you run as administrator and try to open Internet Explorer to enable Data Execution Prevention, you have to right-click the Internet Explorer icon and select “Run as Administrator” to elevate program permissions. While limiting user’s privileges is a welcome feature in Vista, it can drive any user crazy within an hour installing and configuring programs.

To simplify the task of running programs as administrators, Brandon Paddock has developed an extremely useful and time-saving utility called Start++. Actually, Start++ is a set of utilities to enrich your Vista start menu, but we’re only interested in its built-in Sudo utility.

The Vista Sudo utility is based on the popular Linux Sudo command, which allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser (root). So now, whenever you need to run a program with administrative rights, just open the Start menu and type sudo along with the program name.