A self elevating PowerShell script

Okay, this is not actually a virtualization related post – but is a purely about PowerShell.  None the less – it is something that I use quite often when scripting Hyper-V – so I thought I would post it here.

The long and the short of it is that, as a general rule, I always leave UAC enabled on Windows and never run as Administrator by default.  But I do have scripts that need to run as administrator from time to time.

Rather than launching PowerShell “as Administrator” (which would result in me running other scripts as administrator – because it would be convenient) I have put together the following chunk of script:

 # Get the ID and security principal of the current user account
 $myWindowsID=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()
 $myWindowsPrincipal=new-object System.Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal($myWindowsID)
  
 # Get the security principal for the Administrator role
 $adminRole=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator
  
 # Check to see if we are currently running "as Administrator"
 if ($myWindowsPrincipal.IsInRole($adminRole))
    {
    # We are running "as Administrator" - so change the title and background color to indicate this
    $Host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = $myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition + "(Elevated)"
    $Host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor = "DarkBlue"
    clear-host
    }
 else
    {
    # We are not running "as Administrator" - so relaunch as administrator
    
    # Create a new process object that starts PowerShell
    $newProcess = new-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo "PowerShell";
    
    # Specify the current script path and name as a parameter
    $newProcess.Arguments = $myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition;
    
    # Indicate that the process should be elevated
    $newProcess.Verb = "runas";
    
    # Start the new process
    [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($newProcess);
    
    # Exit from the current, unelevated, process
    exit
    }
  
 # Run your code that needs to be elevated here
 Write-Host -NoNewLine "Press any key to continue..."
 $null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown")

This means that when you run the script in question – a new window will be opened “as Administrator” (with an appropriate prompt).

Cheers,
Ben

Elevator.zip