Enable ‘Open as Admin (Root)’ in Ubuntu 19.10 Nautilus

gnome shell

This tutorial shows beginners how to add ‘Open as Administrator’ option in Nautilus file browser context menu (right-click menu) in Ubuntu 19.10.

Want to open a file folder and/or edit a file via root user account? Without running Linux command, you can do this by adding ‘Open as Administrator‘ or ‘Edit as Administrator‘ right-click menu option via nautilus-admin extension.

1.) The nautilus-admin package is available in Ubuntu universe repository. Simply open terminal either from application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

When terminal opens, run command to install it:

sudo apt install nautilus-admin

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) for sudo prompt and hit Enter.

2.) Once installed the extension, restart Nautilus file browser via command:

nautilus -q

Next time you open the file browser, you’ll see ‘Open as Administrator‘ context menu option for file folders, and ‘Edit as Administrator‘ option for documents.

That’s it. Enjoy!