sudo Interaction with Applications That Request Elevation (e.g., Winget)

[SamGreenwood1]

Hey everyone,

With the new Windows sudo command now available, I've been thinking about how it's designed to work with applications that already have their own ways of asking for elevation. I'm hoping to get some clarity on the intended interaction model here.

The Situation and My Core Question

The Windows sudo command is a great addition, allowing us to elevate specific commands directly from an un-elevated terminal.

However, many existing command-line applications on Windows, like winget, are built to request administrative privileges themselves (often triggering a UAC prompt) when they perform actions requiring elevated rights (e.g., winget install for system-wide packages).

My main question is: How is Windows sudo intended to handle elevation for these types of applications?

Specifically, I'm wondering:

• When I run something like sudo winget install <packageID>, is sudo supposed to fully elevate the winget process itself, so winget doesn't pop up a second UAC prompt?
• Are there certain application manifest settings, API calls, or best practices that developers should follow (or avoid) to ensure a seamless "one UAC prompt" experience when their app is run via sudo?

Why a Smooth Interaction Matters

If sudo can seamlessly handle the elevation for these applications, it would offer several benefits:

• Streamlined User Experience: Users would only see one UAC prompt (from sudo) for elevated operations, making the workflow much smoother.
• Better Consistency: This behavior would align Windows more closely with how sudo works on other operating systems, which is great for predictability.
• Simpler Scripting: A unified and predictable elevation process would make writing scripts and automation tasks that involve elevated commands much easier.

An Example of Desired Behavior

Ideally, when I type:

sudo winget install <packageID>

...I'd hope that sudo provides all the necessary elevation, allowing winget to proceed with the installation without triggering its own UAC prompt afterward. I'd just interact with sudo's prompt.

Looking for Your Insights

I'd really appreciate any technical insights or pointers to documentation regarding sudo's intended interaction with applications that also request elevation. If anyone has recommendations on patterns for developers to consider for optimal sudo compatibility, that would be incredibly helpful too!

Thanks for your time and thoughts!

See discussion I posted to the winget-cli repo here.