Certain actions require elevated privileges in Windows. But what are elevated rights?

The requested operation requires elevated privileges

C:\Users> arp -d
Error deleting ARP entry: The requested operation requires elevated privileges.

Elevated privileges, or administrator privileges, can be requested either from the program itself, or from the Start as Administrator dialog:

Start as administrator

A "right-click" on the respective program can "Run as administrator" it: 

What are elevated rights?

In earlier Windows versions it was common practice that users worked with an administrator account on the PC, mainly to make all programs work easily, not always thinking about security. However, the safer option would have always been to use limited rights to use the computer and an additional admin user when needed for software installations or performing other administrative tasks. Apart from use in certain companies, this approach has certainly found too little use. As a solution, Microsoft restricted the administrator account via an additional layer, the User Account Control, or: User Access Control, or UAC for short. This means that today's administrator users have the rights of an administrator, but - when UAC is enabled - they work with user rights. Administrator rights can be requested via a dialog:

By confirming the dialog, the restricted administrator becomes a real administrator, i.e. the user has all rights to change settings on the system after confirming. Thus, programs can not easily make unnoticed changes to the system.