Administrator account vs elevated privileges: what's the difference?

Question

What's the difference between an Administrator account and elevated privileges? What types of things Admin account grants and where do you need elevated privileges? (i.e. run as administrator)

Solution

An Administrator account has the ability to "run as administrator", but no special privileges beyond that (assuming UAC is turned on). If you're running a non-administrator account, then you must provide the credentials to an Administrator account if you want to "run as administrator".

Comments

[Juha]

So basically standard user account is no more safe than administrator account? (with UAC turned on)

[Resorath]

Well the standard account needs a password to make changes, external programs shouldn't be able to get a elevation token by themselves regardless, it is more about "who do you trust to make changes to your computer".

[Mawg says reinstate Monica]

Strange that this question has an accepted answer without mentioning elevated rights, as asked ...