TC 11.57 Right-click "Run as administrator" on .cmd file will fail if filename contains ()

[probica]

Total Commander 11.57 will fail to "Run as Administrator" .CMD or .BAT files that contain brackets, for example:
Test(test).cmd will fail executing while Test.cmd will not.
It does not matter what file contains, only how it is named.

[ghisler(Author)]

This seems to be a Windows bug, so I cannot fix it. Try the same in Explorer (right click, Run as Administrator).

Running the command
*"Test(test).cmd"
with Shift+Enter from the command line seems to work, though.

Moderator message from: ghisler(Author) » 2026-06-04, 08:06 UTC

Moved to will not be changed

[white]

Isn't that dependent on whether or not the path contains a space or not?

---

The fun part comes in when you also create a file named "Test^(test^).cmd" and when you run this file as administrator. Then it can happen that the wrong file is executed

Create these batch files in a path that does not contain spaces:

Test(test).cmd

Code: Select all

@echo off
echo Batch file started: "Test(test).cmd"
pause

Test^(test^).cmd

Code: Select all

@echo off
echo Batch file started: "Test^(test^).cmd"
pause

When running "Test^(test^).cmd" as administrator, "Test(test).cmd" is executed instead.

---

Let's look in the registry and see what happens.

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\cmdfile\shell\open\command

  Code: Select all

  "%1" %*

  Seems to cause execution of:

  Code: Select all

  c:\windows\System32\cmd.exe /C ""%1" %*"

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\cmdfile\shell\runas\command

  Code: Select all

  %SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /C "%1" %*

  Seems to cause execution of:

  Code: Select all

  "c:\windows\System32\cmd.exe" /C "%1" %*

So it seems the last registry setting is wrong. It is missing a pair of quotes. To fix it, add the quotes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\cmdfile\shell\runas\command

Code: Select all

%SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /C ""%1" %*"

[ghisler(Author)]

Maybe use /S/C instead of /C ?

[white]

Maybe use /S/C instead of /C ?

Adding the quotes to the registry value (as described) solves it. There's no need to add /S in that case because the outer quotes will be stripped anyway when there are more than 1 pair of quotes. As mentioned, that's how Microsoft is doing it when running a batch file non-elevated.