The sudo command speeds up administrative tasks by letting you run tasks without having to start a new session as a different user. It’s a real time-saver, and it is good for security as it means you don’t have to share administrative credentials. It’s so widely used in day-to-day Linux operations it’s pretty much a geek meme at this point.

It appears on geek merchandise everywhere: sudo jokes are printed on coffee cups, hats, and t-shirts that are proudly donned by IT staff across the globe. No matter where you are, if you walk into an IT department you’ll probably see a sudo reference somewhere.

Functionality wise, sudo doesn’t bring a whole lot to Windows that wasn’t possible already. Most of the excitement is about the cachet it brings Windows users. Geeks love sudo, and now Windows users are part of the club.

More seriously, sudo is a handy shortcut to existing Windows command line functionality, enabling you more quickly and easily:

• Perform actions as another user without logging into their account
• Provide a more secure way to grant users elevated access rather than giving them Administrator login details
• Ensure that Windows UAC prompts are displayed when privilege escalation occurs
• Spend less time writing runas commands.