If you’ve ever accidentally entered the wrong command in Command Prompt or PowerShell you aren’t alone—everyone does it eventually. Fortunately, one of Linux’s best safeguards is now available for the Windows Terminal.
Sudo is a vital part of Linux’s safety net
What is sudo?
Sudo, which is short for superuser do, or substitute user do, is a feature typically found on Linux systems like Ubuntu or Fedora.
Sudo allows you to run a single command with administrative privileges without actually needing to log in to the root (administrator) account.
The Linux root user can do whatever they choose, period. And that’s a huge double-edged sword.
Despite how minor that seems, it is an important security feature. Sudo puts up a small wall that prevents you from doing something destructive by accident.
Consider the case where you’re following old instructions online. You’re going step by step with your normal user account, then suddenly a command doesn’t run correctly because it requires sudo. Immediately, that forces you to stop and consider carefully what the command is actually doing. Is it acting on a protected file? Is it trying to change services related to security? Why exactly does this command need root privileges?
You also have to enter your sudo password to install applications, which ensures you won’t unknowingly run something malicious.
It encourages a more deliberate approach to invoking root—or administrative—privileges in a way that Run as Administrator on Windows doesn’t
Run as administrator isn’t as safe as sudo
All-or-nothing admin privileges aren’t good
Sometimes you need administrative privileges to run something on Windows, just like on Linux. When that happens, you have two options: Log directly into the administrator account or launch Terminal as Administrator.
Most of the time, you right-click then select Run as Administrator. However, while it bears a superficial similarity to how sudo works, it is different in practice.
Once you launch a Terminal is administrator, everything you do within it will be run as administrator. Want to delete something you shouldn’t? Go right ahead. Enter a command without considering the security implications? Sounds good—go right ahead.
It is an all-or-nothing approach that unnecessarily creates the potential for a command to go badly amiss. Sudo, on the other hand, forces you to type sudo every single time you want to use it. So long as you’re not carelessly copy-pasting from the internet, it serves as a constant reminder that the command you’re about to enter has no safeguards.
Using your PC directly from the administrator account is bad practice, and you shouldn’t do it under normal circumstances. The account is disabled by default; I’d recommend you leave it that way.
Sudo makes using the command-line interface in Windows easier
Switching to admin or logging into another account is a drag
Above and beyond the added security and safety benefits, sudo is also just plain convenient in a way that run as administrator isn’t.
Under normal circumstances, regardless of the operating system you’re using, you don’t want to run every single command as administrator. That’s why you don’t normally log into the administrator account on Windows or into Root on Linux.
You should be running everything you can on Windows in a non-administrator terminal, and then only invoke administrative privileges when you actually need them. Unfortunately, because of the way Windows works, that means you need to switch back and forth between two different Terminal windows.
On the other hand, sudo allows you to just invoke administrative privileges on the fly, only as you need them.
It isn’t the biggest convenience feature in the world, but once you get used to it, its absence on Windows is extremely noticeable.
Installing Sudo on Windows
Bringing the best Linux feature to Windows
Fortunately, Microsoft has introduced the sudo command, in all its glory, to Windows 11. To enable it, press Windows+i to open the Settings app.
From there, navigate to System > Advanced, then click the toggle next to Enable Sudo. I’d also recommend that you change how it runs from In a new window to Inline, which is how it behaves normally on Linux.
Small quality of life updates matter
Sudo isn’t a necessary or game-changing feature, but it one thing that Linux unequivocally does better than Windows. If you spend any amount of time working with Windows via the command-line, it is a very welcome improvement.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
