This error is well-known among Command Prompt users who have once tried to run a command from Command Prompt but they simply failed to do so as this problematic error message has occurred immediately. There are a few specific commands which are followed by this error message so there are special solutions for those ones.

If you have encountered this error with any command on your Windows PC in Command Prompt, try following the steps below to fix the "You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode" error.

Solution 1: Run Command Prompt as an Administrator

Since Command Prompt functionality differs greatly when it's run normally or with administrator privileges, it's obvious that certain commands won't be able to run via a Command Prompt with regular user privileges as that means a guest user on your PC might be able to make big changes to your PC which is not recommended.

That explains that you have to run the CMD utility in elevated mode which means with administrator privileges. Follow the steps below to do so.

  1. If you are a Windows 10 user, you can easily locate Command Prompt simply by clicking the Start menu button or the Search button next to it and type in "cmd" or "Command Prompt". Right-click on the first result and choose the Run as administrator option.

  1. If you are running a version of Windows older than Windows 10, the Start menu search might or might not work properly but you can still navigate to C >> Windows >> System32, right-click on the "cmd.exe" entry and choose Run as administrator.
  2. Check to see if you are now able to perform and run the command you intended to run in the first place. See if the "You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode" error still appears.

Note: If you are not able to see the Windows folder when you open your Local Hard Drive, you might need to enable the view of hidden files and folders. Click on the "View" tab on File Explorer's menu and click on the "Hidden items" checkbox in the Show/hide section. File Explorer will show the hidden files and will remember this option until you change it again.

Solution 2: Run the Command Using the Hidden Administrator Account

If you are the only user on your PC and if you have administrator privileges, you still may not be able to solve the problem without activating the hidden administrator account which is used to solve problems like this. It can be activated right from the login screen as well and you can disable it easily when you don't need it anymore.

  1. Luckily for you, you don't even need to be logged in to an account to access the Command Prompt. On the login screen, click on the Power icon and hold the Shift key while clicking restart.
  2. Instead or restarting, a blue screen will appear with several options. Choose Troubleshoot >> Advanced Options >> Command Prompt.
  3. Of course, you can open Command Prompt simply by using the Windows Key + R key combination and typing "cmd" before clicking OK.

  1. Copy and paste the following command in Command Prompt and click Enter. You should be able to see the "The command completed successfully" message in no time.
net user administrator /active:yes
  1. Log into this admin account and wait for a couple of minutes before everything is ready.
  2. Now you can try restarting your computer, logging into the new administrator account and running the problematic command in the Command Prompt. You should still use the instructions from Solution 1 to run the command.
  3. After you are finished with the hidden administrator account, you can disable it again by opening an administrative command prompt and typing the following command:
net user administrator /active:no

Solution 3: Set the UAC Level Of Security Somewhat Lower

If the running as administrator simply fails to work, you can try decreasing the level of security related to the User Account Control. These prompts are usually when you are trying to open an app which may cause changes to your computer such as "regedit", "Command Prompt", etc. Try doing the steps below in order to fix the problem.

Your PC will remain pretty much in the same security level as before and you won't receive the error along with constant security alerts.

  1. Open Control Panel by searching for it in the Start menu. You can also use the Windows Key + R key combination, type in "control panel" in the Run dialog box and click OK.
  2. Switch the View by setting in Control Panel to Large Icons and locate the User Accounts option.

  1. Open it and click on "Change User Account Control Settings".
  2. You will notice that there are several different options you can choose on the slider. If your slider is set at the top level, you will definitely receive more of these pop-up messages than usual without removing the error. Also, the error messages in Command Prompt similar to the one you are experiencing right now are usually caused by User Account Control.
  3. Try decreasing this value by one if it's at the top slider and check to see if it helped. Repeat the process if the error still appears or turn of UAC completely.

  1. We recommend you turn it off for now as the command should probably run successfully. You may also be able to run the command even if you don't disable UAC completely, but you should definitely leave it on as it serves to protect your PC. This is especially valid if you are having problems with one command only.

Solution 4: Error Appearing with Diskpart

If you are trying to format a disk using the administrative Command Prompt and you see the following error, you might want to try following the steps below in order to follow through that process properly. This means that you might have made small mistakes when doing so for the first time and the error appeared.

  1. You can easily locate Command Prompt simply by clicking the Start menu button or the Search button next to it and type in "cmd" or "Command Prompt". Right-click on the first result and choose the Run as administrator option.

  1. At this command prompt window, type in simply "diskpart" in a new line and click the Enter key.
  2. This will switch Command Prompt to enable you to run various Diskpart commands. The first one you should run is the one which will enable you to see the list of all available volumes. Type it in and make sure you click Enter afterwards:
DISKPART> list volume

  1. Make sure you select your volume carefully, depending on which volume you want to format now. Let's say that its name is Volume 1. Now run the following command in order to select this volume:
DISKPART> select volume
  1. A message should appear saying something like "Volume 1 is the selected volume".
  2. In order to format this volume, all you need to do is to type in the command below, click the Enter key afterwards, and stay patient for the process to finish. The process should now be successful for a change.

Solution 5: CHKDSK Being Problematic

If you are trying to run a CHKDSK commands and it displays this error each time you want to run and if the solutions 1-3 failed to work for you, there is a way to run the CHKDSK commands in another manner which may help you go around the issue and go through with the check. Follow the steps below:

  1. You can easily locate Command Prompt simply by clicking the Start menu button or the Search button next to it and type in "cmd" or "Command Prompt". Right-click on the first result and choose the Run as administrator option.

  1. Let's say you wanted to format the volume marked with the letter F: as this letter is usually assigned to removable USB drives. If you have already tried out the "chkdsk /R /F F:" command to check the disk, you should try running the same command like this:
runas /noprofile /user:computer\administrator "chkdsk /R /F F:"
  1. Check to see if the problem is gone now and if the "You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode" error still appears on your computer.

Photo of Kamil Anwar

Kamil is a certified MCITP, CCNA (W), CCNA (S) and a former British Computer Society Member with over 9 years of experience Configuring, Deploying and Managing Switches, Firewalls and Domain Controllers also an old-school still active on FreeNode.