How To Run Program As Admin & Disable Fullscreen Optimizations

When you’re browsing inside the properties of any executable program file, you’re bound to see these two options in the compatibility section. Whenever you read some of our error fix guides on eXputer, you’ll often find me suggesting readers to run their games as administrators and disable fullscreen optimizations. This helps resolve any problems, most prominently, crashing, that you might be facing. We will dive deeply into this particular fix and help you understand why it is necessary. 

Why Run A Program As An Administrator? 

Sometimes, a game or a program on your system can’t access your system resources properly. This leads to you encountering errors or hard crashes randomly. 

To resolve this issue, you can try running the game or application with administrative privileges. This grants your program admin rights which bypasses any restriction that’s preventing it from accessing your PC’s resources.

Why Disable Fullscreen Optimizations? 

Fullscreen Optimization is one of the features baked into Windows 10 and 11 that’s geared towards enhancing the experience of fullscreen applications. It’s a hybrid borderless-fullscreen window mode that makes it easier for users to alt+tab out of fullscreen apps, most notably games. 

But sometimes, the feature can cause conflicts with some programs, causing them to either display a black screen or crash randomly. Most notably, the programs or games that are graphically intensive face this issue most commonly. Symptoms can include the program not launching or simply crashing without any error message. If these issues sound familiar to you, it’s best that you also disable fullscreen optimization. We’ll show you how in a second. 

How To Run Your Program As an Administrator?

Running your game or application as an administrator is one of the easiest things you can do. And guess what? There are several ways you can pull this off. We’ll illustrate each method so you can choose the one that suits you best. 

Right Clicking On The Shortcut

This one is the easiest as the most direct way you can launch a program or a game with administrator privileges. The game or application you need to launch will definitely have a shortcut on the desktop. Here’s how you can launch it with administrative privileges right then and there: 

1. Locate the application that you want to launch with administrative privileges on your desktop. Once located, right-click on it. 
2. As you right-click on the application, you need to click on the “Run As Administrator” option from the context menu. 

And that’s it. Now the application will launch with administrative privileges. If you were facing any errors or lack of functionality due to missing permissions, now you won’t be facing that issue anymore. 

Shortcut In The Start Menu

Another way you can launch your programs as an administrator is through the start menu. You can simply open the start menu by clicking on the Windows Icon next to the search bar or hitting the WIN key on your keyboard. Follow the process below to launch an application with administrative privileges from the start menu: 

1. First, you need to open up the start menu and locate the game or application you want to launch as administrator. 
2. Once you find the application that you want to launch as an administrator, simply right-click on it. Once the context menu opens up, click on Run as an Administrator. 

   

This will launch the application as an administrator from the start menu. However, what if you can’t find the application that you’re trying to launch in the Start Menu? You need to pin it here by following the steps below: 

1. Simply locate the application that you want to add to start for ease of access. Once you locate it, simply right-click on it and then select the Pin To Start option. 

   

2. Once you click on the Pin To Start option, simply click on the Win key to open up the start menu, and you’ll spot that application here. Now simply by following the method we’ve discussed in the process above, you’ll have to right-click on it and click on Run As Administrator. 

   

This is how you can launch an application with administrative privileges from the start menu. It’s quite an easy way for people who don’t like to put their apps on a desktop and instead rely on the start menu to launch them quickly. 

Through The Windows Search

You can also search for a particular application in the Windows Search and then launch it as admin from there. It’s also a quick and easy way to launch your application as an administrator, especially for those applications that you don’t have shortcuts for and use infrequently. Here’s how to do it: 

1. Open up Windows Search by clicking on it and type the name of the application you want to launch. 
2. Once the application shows up, you can either right-click on it and choose to run it as administrator. Or you can simply check it out in the right-side window and click on run as administrator. 

   

3. Once you do it, the Windows Search will collapse, and your application or game will run with administrator privileges. 

Running Pinned Application Through Taskbar

You can also pin your applications or games that you need to launch as an administrator straight to the taskbar for ease of access. This will keep your application always ready to launch no matter what other tasks you’re doing on your Windows PC (except the fullscreen applications). Here’s how you can do it: 

1. First, locate the application that you need to pin to your taskbar. It could be a shortcut of an application or the main application itself.
2. Once you locate the application, you simply need to drag and drop it to the taskbar, and it will be pinned.

   

3. Once you’re done, simply right-click on the pinned application on the taskbar, and then another right-click on the application name to open a context menu. In this menu, you need to select Run Application As Administrator. 

   

And now you’re all set. You can launch any application or game with administrative privileges from practically anywhere on your system with this method. 

Accessing Appllication’s Main Executable File

You can also run an application or game as an administrator right from the main executable file. All you need to do is locate the local installation directory of that app or game and launch that application with administrative privileges. Here’s how to do it: 

1. First, you need to locate the application that you want to launch as an administrator. After you locate its shortcut either on the desktop, start menu, or through Windows Search, simply right-click on it and click on Open File Location.

   

2. Once you open the application or game’s installation directory, locate the main executable file and right-click on it. 
3. In the context menu, you can simply click on Run As Administrator. And that’s it. 

   

Now your application will run as administrator right from the main executable file. This method is different in a way that any launch parameters you’ve used in the shortcut of this application won’t be active. So this is one of the best ways to launch your application as an administrator. 

Setting Up Run As Admin In Properties

Do you always require an application to launch with administrative privileges without the extra steps? Then this method is for you as it makes you configure the application properties once, and then the app or game will always launch as an administrator.

Here’s how to Set up run as Admin in properties:

1. By following the previous method, all you need to do is locate the application or game you want to run as admin and then go to its installation folder. 
2. Once in the installation folder, all you need to do is right-click on the main executable file and go to its properties. 

   

3. Inside the properties, you’ll need to head over to the compatibility tab and then checkmark the option that says 

   

4. Once you’re done toggling this option, simply click on OK to save the settings. 

Now you’re all set. You can either launch the application from its shortcuts on the desktop, taskbar, start menu, or Windows search, and it will always launch with administrative privileges. If you were looking for a permanent way to set the app to always run with administrative privileges, this is the method for you. 

Run As Admin From Task Manager

The final way you can launch an app or game as an administrator is through the good old task manager. If you aren’t familiar with several task manager features, this might be a bit confusing as it contains extra steps. However, it’s effective nonetheless. Here’s how to do it:

1. First, you must launch the Task Manager by hitting the shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. 
2. As the task manager opens up, click on the option on the top that says Run New Task. 
3. Now a window will open up; here, you can either type up the name of the executable file of your application or game. But the best way to launch an app through this dialog box is to browse the executable file by clicking on the Browse button. 
4. Once you browse the executable file of your program or game, simply checkmark the option that says Create This Task With Administrative Privileges. 

   

5. After you’ve check-marked the option, simply click on ok to launch that application or game. 

Now the game will launch with administrative privileges through the Task Manager. And these are all the methods that you can use to launch an application or game as an administrator. Some methods may suit you, and some won’t, which is why we listed all the possible ways to help you find the one that suits you the best. 

How To Disable Fullscreen Optimization In Windows

Now that we’ve covered all the possible ways to launch an application or game with administrative privileges, now it’s time to look at ways to disable fullscreen optimization. 

In Application Properties (For Current User)

You might have an application or game that’s incompatible with the Windows Fullscreen Optimization feature. This means that said application/game is constantly crashing or performing poorly due to fullscreen optimizations in Windows. Here’s how you can disable this feature for a particular application: 

1. First, you need to locate the application that you need to disable fullscreen optimizations for. Once you find it, right-click it and select the open file location. If you have a game on Steam or any other game launcher, you’ll need to locate it via that game client’s game library. 

   

2. Once you’re inside the installation directory of that application or game, you need to find the main executable file and right-click on it and select properties. 
3. Inside the properties, you need to head over to the compatibility tab, where you need to toggle on the option Disable Fullscreen optimizations.

   

4. Once you’re done, simply click ok to save changes. 

This will disable the fullscreen optimization feature for the current user who launches this particular application or game. If you want to disable fullscreen optimization for all the users of this Windows PC for this app, follow the upcoming step. 

In Application Properties (For All Users)

If you want to disable fullscreen optimizations for all the users of your PC when it comes to a particular application, you can do that too. Here’s how: 

1. By following the steps discussed in the previous method, follow them exactly till step 3. 
2. In addition to this step, you need to click on the button called Change Settings for All Users. 

   

3. This will open up an identical menu to the one you just saw. However, these compatibility settings will affect all the users of your PC. Simply repeat the process by toggling on the Disable Fullscreen Optimization option and click ok. 

   

4. Once you’re back in the original compatibility settings, click OK again to save changes. 

By following the step above, you’ll simply disable the Windows Fullscreen Optimization feature for all the users using this particular application or game. In other words, they won’t have to do this process again in order to have stable performance when they launch this particular game or application.

Disable Fullscreen Optimization Via Registry Editor

Aside from disabling fullscreen optimization from settings, you can also disable it via the registry editor. To disable it via the registry editor, make sure to follow the steps given below:

1. First of all, to open the run dialog, press the Windows key and R together.
2. Type regedit in the box and click ok to continue.
3. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore folder in the registry editor window.
4. Then right-click on the right side and choose New>DWORD (32-bit) value to continue.
5. Name it the GameDVR_FSEBehaviour.
6. Then double-click it to change its value data. Set its value data to 2 to disable the fullscreen optimization feature.

After that, save these changes and exit the registry editor window. When you are done with all the steps, you have successfully disabled fullscreen optimization.

Benefits Of Running Your Program As Administrator

You can expect the following benefits from running an application or game with administrative privileges. 

• Permissions: Granting proper permissions to the program lets it have uninterrupted access to your system resources. 
• Control: The program gets more control of your system and functions better. This is especially true in the case of utility programs like clean-up tools, system tune-up software, and several diagnostic utilities.
• No Interference: No other application interferes with the program’s operations as it has the highest privileges on your system.
• Improved Performance: In some cases, the performance is improved for an application or game since your PC directs resources better to your program.

Benefits Of Disabling Fullscreen Optimization

If you’re disabling Fullscreen Optimization for your application or games, you can expect the following benefits:

• Performance improvement: By disabling fullscreen optimizations, your game or program will run in either exclusive fullscreen mode or borderless Windows mode. The exclusive fullscreen mode gives enhanced control of your display to the program improving its performance. 
• Input lag reduction: People have reported that disabling the fullscreen optimization feature has actually helped them improve gaming latency and reduce input lag. This is really great when it comes to fast-paced gaming titles like CS:GO or Valorant.
• Fix Overlays: If you’re a PC gamer, chances are you’ll have a ton of overlays running in your system, and some of them you might actually need. If you’ve noticed that some of the overlays are not working on your games (given you’ve not disabled these third-party overlays yourself), then it’s possible fullscreen optimizations are the culprit here. Disabling it lets you summon your in-game overlays so you can use them without any problems. 

Ending Words

And there you have it. I’ve shared every bit of method there is when it comes to either running your games or applications as administrators or disabling Fullscreen Optimizations. I hope you’ve found this guide helpful and its method effective in helping you achieve the best performance and stability in your application and games. If you have any lingering questions that my guide couldn’t answer, be sure to reach out to me in the comments below. 

Here are some more Windows guides on Windows that you’ll find interesting:

• Best Windows Optimization/Settings Guide
• How To Restart The Modem
• Methods To Restart Your PC
• Test Your Network Connection
• How To Reset The IP Address
• Disable Third-party Applications Overlay
• Whitelist Your Application From Antivirus
• Allow Your Applications Through Firewall