Opening Explorer shell with admin priveleges on XP (with IE7 installed)

Question

I used to demote my user account so that it had no admin priveleges and used a 'sudo-like' trick where you create a shortcut to IE6 and enabled the 'Run with different credentials' option to open a shell window as local admin so I could install, uninstall things etc.

When I upgraded to IE7 this stopped working - IE7 launches Windows Explorer separately.

I've tried running Windows Explorer with different credential but this does not work.

Does anyone know how to re-enable this behaviour so that I don't have to run my computer on a daily basis with administrator priveleges?

Answer 1

You can use runas.exe to run a program (for instance a windows console) under different credentials. I have a shortcut on my desktop called 'su' that links to this:

%windir%\system32\runas.exe /noprofile /user:administrator cmd

This will start a console box asking for the administrator password.

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@Huppie - runas is great, but launching explorer doesn't seem to work. I can run cmd just fine, or my AD console, but explorer just fails without throwing any sort of error.

Windows Explorer is (sadly) a bit too integrated with windows, it cannot be opened with runas... try using a different file browser (for instance Total Commander).

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Gulzar has an (undocumented) solution to run explorer with runas:

%windir%\system32\runas.exe /user:administrator "explorer.exe /separate"

Answer 2

I'm not sure if this link solves your problem, but it boils down to:

1. Shift-Right Click -> Run As...
2. Enter Administrator credentials

Answer 3

If your question relates to your own computer, I cannot recommend SudoWin enough: it allows you to perform the "sudo" trick (supposedly a well-known Linux/Unix command) under Windows. In other words: it lets you run programs under your own account, but with admin privileges. This means that programs retain the preferences and settings they would have if they would run under your account (registry, user profile), but then with admin privileges, protected by the password of your own account. It's a feature you can't live without once you've got to know it, and the implementation is great!

[EDIT] And did I mention it's completely free (open source)?

Answer 4

@Huppie - runas is great, but launching explorer doesn't seem to work. I can run cmd just fine, or my AD console, but explorer just fails without throwing any sort of error.

Answer 5

Best you might be able to do is check the "Open Folder in new Process" option (or something like that), then do runas. Caveats include:

1. All folder windows must be closed, or it'll reuse the existing process token
2. It's slightly slower
3. To revert out of admin mode, you'll need to close all folder windows
4. Any windows opened while in admin mode will also be adminned

This is a trick for Vista's UAC - YMMV on XP, and with a completely separate account.

I'd recommend just getting yourself another filemanager for admin tasks. Xplorer2 seems usable to me.

Answer 6

All the pieces to the puzzle have been posted, but they just need to be put together.

To run Windows Explorer as Administrator under a non-Administrator account, you have to:

1. log into the computer as the Administrator
2. open Windows Explorer
3. goto the Tools menu and select Folder Options...
4. goto the View tab and check Launch folder windows in a separate process

If you log into the computer as a non-Administrator, running

runas /user:administrator explorer.exe

will now work. This can probably be set via the registry, but I think this is the easiest way.

Answer 7

I always use the following command to launch a separate explorer shell on XP/IE7. Looks like /separate switch is undocumented. Haven't seen it much on web.

Run this command: runas /u:administrator "explorer.exe /separate"

Enter the password and you should see the separate explorer shell running under the administrator account.

Answer 8

In Windows XP, you can run Windows Explorer as any other user, including "Administrator", by following the "Option 2" instructions on Aaron Margosis's blog post entitled RunAs with Explorer: http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archive/2004/07/07/175488.aspx.

In short:

1. Log onto the machine as the user that you eventually want to RunAs.
2. Navigate to the Folder Options control panel, and check the option "Launch folder windows in a separate process".

I use this all the time, and so I have included the following *.cmd script in my new machine build process:

rem Tested on Windows XP only!
reg load "HKU\TempDefaultProfileHive" "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\..\Default User\ntuser.dat"
reg add "HKU\TempDefaultProfileHive\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "SeparateProcess" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg unload "HKU\TempDefaultProfileHive"

This script turns on the "Launch folder windows in a separate process" setting for all new profiles that are created based on the machine's default user profile.

Answer 9

This works well for me:

runas /u:administrator "explorer /separate"

I can use it just as well for a domain user that has local adimin and have access to his network shares as well!

runas /u:domain\username "explorer /separate"

I can also spec a share if needed and BooM! Explorer opens up at that folder :)

runas /u:domain\username "explorer \server\share, /separate"

All quotes and commas must be typed as shown and if the share name has spaces, double quoted. Like ...

runas /u:domain\username "explorer "\server\share name", /separate"

Hope this helps someone.