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[Quick Tip] Add ‘Open as Administrator’ in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Last updated: April 13, 2020

gnome shell

This simple tutorial shows how to add ‘Open as Administrator‘ option to file browser right-click menu in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Need to open or edit files with Administrator (root) user privilege directly from file browser in Ubuntu desktop? There’s an extension nautilus-admin can do the job in the default Gnome desktop.

1. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu.

2. When terminal opens, run command to install the extension:

sudo apt install nautilus-admin

You may replace nautilus-admin with caja-admin or peony-admin if you’re running with MATE or UKUI desktop.

Once installed, run command nautilus -q or log out and back in to apply changes.

Note the extension only adds Administrator privilege to open folders or edit files. There’s no ‘Run as Administrator’ option to run program as super user privilege.

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    9 responses to [Quick Tip] Add ‘Open as Administrator’ in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

    1. VaGNaroK April 17, 2020 at 10:59 pm

      Nice!!

    2. Sydney May 1, 2020 at 12:23 am

      Great job! Thanks

    3. Brian May 13, 2020 at 6:36 pm

      Very cool, thanks. It looks like we cant have this and folder color installed at the same time…?

    4. name August 25, 2020 at 11:41 am

      what a stupid thing to do. make it easy for people to ruin their root…..

    5. Daniel November 1, 2020 at 9:21 pm

      Awesome tip for experienced users.

    6. ray December 11, 2020 at 9:48 pm

      Thanks. Dangerous if you do the wrong file, but for my purposes and lack of talent, it is a nice tool

    7. Akshay July 9, 2022 at 8:16 pm

      thanks but how to open applications as a admin?

      • Ji m July 11, 2022 at 3:22 pm

        There’s no ‘Run program as admin’ in Linux as far as I known. Applications that need admin permissions (e.g., Grub Customizer, Synaptic Package manager) will pop-up an authentication dialog during run-time.