In the midst of the Windows 10 era, Microsoft brought Linux tools into the mix, enabling users and developers to access the command line of actual Linux without leaving the Windows environment. Now, Microsoft seems ready to embrace another aspect of Linux: the sudo command. Known as “superuser do” or “superuser” and popularized by the original xkcd comic, sudo is widely used in command line operations where a user may require access to control the machine, usually to install or modify software, or modify system files. Users who are not part of the sudo user group on a given machine cannot run the command, which prevents them from accessing or modifying other files on the system.
A user discovered the settings for the Sudo command in the preview version of Windows 11, which was sent to the Canary testing system at the end of January. The WindowsLatest team tested the settings in the Windows Server 2025 build, which currently requires Developer Mode to be turned on in the Settings app. There is a switch to turn the sudo command on and off, and an option to change how the command behaves when used, although it is currently not functional. The sudo command is also part of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), but the version of the sudo command only affects Linux applications. It seems capable of running Windows standard commands, though the specifics of its functionality are not yet known.
Currently, users who want a command like sudo in Windows have to rely on third-party programs like gsudo to achieve this functionality. The advantage of the sudo command for Windows users, whether they are using Windows Server or not, is that they can elevate their privileges without needing to open a separate command or Windows Terminal window. Depending on the options available in the preview, commands run by sudo could be opened in a new window, or run internally, eliminating the need for the “right-click, run-as-administrator” process. Microsoft regularly tests new Windows versions that do not necessarily make it into public release versions, including specific versions designed for Windows Server without creating a consumer version of Windows. This integration of the sudo command is a game changer for Windows users who spend a lot of time working with the command. Microsoft has been adopting Linux features for quite some time, but the reciprocal exchange is also occurring, with recent updates to the Linux systemd program incorporating a Windows-made “death image” to provide crash information for users.
