Superuser

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What Does Superuser Mean?

A superuser is a special user account for general system administration such as in networks and databases. It is a variation of the administrator user, which varies depending on the operating system and context. Most commonly, superuser refers to the most privileged user account in the Android mobile operating system, which can be activated by rooting the device.

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Techopedia Explains Superuser

Superuser is the term given to the user account that has overall control of the Android operating system and is usually achieved by rooting the device or the OS. Rooting means unlocking the OS restrictions to the user so that he/she may be able to make changes that are otherwise restricted by the OS. In other operating systems, this is known as administrator/admin (Windows) and root (Unix/Linux).

Superuser is also the name of an application used in Android that manages what other apps can do to a rooted device. It does this by giving that specific app superuser status as well.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.