Just learned a great Vista (or Server 2008) shortcut from a friend. To run something as admin just using the keyboard:

  1. Press the Windows “Start” button on your keyboard.
  2. Type the command you want to launch (e.g., “cmd”).
  3. Press Ctrl-Shift-Enter.

Sweet. That beats my old method of using (which wasn’t just keyboard based): hit Ctrl-Shift-ESC, click on “Show processes from all users,” File->New Task, type “cmd”, etc.

Update (3/11 @ 7:50pm): Here’s a link to MSDN with what looks to be a fairly complete list of keyboard shortcuts. The Windows Logo key (I guess I was incorrectly referring to it as the “Start” key, but “Start” is still a lot less verbose) shortcuts are the ones I was least familiar with but there are definitely some useful ones. Start+# (launch the #d shortcut in quick launch), Start-B (tray access), Start-T (cycle through programs on task bar), etc. Well worth a look–thanks Brian for the pointer (and poking fun at me for not knowing these).