Windows – Run software as admin user, but in the current user context

administratorrunaswindowswindows 7

Here is my situation: I have a single software that demands admin rights. That software needs to be run by commom users. Right-clicking and "Run as administrator" does not do the trick, therefore I used the runas application in order to run such software as another account that has admin rights, but logged as a common user. So the commom user will execute a .bat like this:

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /profile /user:admin_user /savecred "path_to_software"

The problem is, since I'm running the software as admin_user, I'm also inside his context. For example, when I try to save a file from inside that software, the "Save as" dialog will by default, open admin_user's folders, and not current user's folders. This also happens for the default printers and so on. Every aspect of the software that interacts with Windows, will be inside admin_user context.

What I need, is to run the software as admin_user (or with admin rights), but inside the context of the logged (current) user, so that when I open "Save as" dialog, for example, I get the current user folders, not admin_user folders. Is that even possible?

Best Answer

Use compatibility mode of Windows

it seems to do the trick you want

Related Solutions

Windows 7 – Run Program with Admin Privilege

runas does not elevate a program. Starting with Vista, processes are no longer giving admin privileges just because the user has admin credentials. This is because of UAC.

When Vista and Server 2008 came out, this was especially a pain point for system admins because you could not launch programs with admin privileges from a script.

To elevate(the proper term for this process) a program from the commandline, you can do a few ways.

If you just need to elevate one command, you can type it into the start menu and hit CTRL Shift Enter.

If you need to elevate commands from a batchfile, you'll need to covert the script to a VBScript or JScript file. Or just download the excellent Elevate powertoys.

Edit:

For more clarification: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.06.elevation.aspx

The runas command-line tool, however, still exists in Windows Vista. Unfortunately, it cannot be used for the most common dual account tasks—running Microsoft® Management Console (MMC) snap-ins.
. . .
runas /user:mydomain\admin "mmc.exe %windir%\system32\dsa.msc"

Unfortunately, this does not cause ADU&C to launch. Instead, you receive a runas error that says "The requested operation requires elevation." What is happening in this case is that the MMC executable is marked to run at the highestAvailable privilege level. Since the highestAvailable level for your network administration account is as administrator, launching ADU&C in this manner would require elevation. Since runas does not cause a prompt for elevation, the error occurs.

UAC documentations:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/cc753413.aspx

When an administrator logs on to a computer running this version of Windows, the user is assigned two separate access tokens. Windows uses access tokens, which contain a user's group membership, authorization data, and access control data, to control what resources and tasks the user can access. In some previous versions of Windows such as Windows XP, an administrator account received one access token, which included data to grant the user access to all Windows resources.

Windows – Batch file with commands to run as administrator and standard user

You can add the following to your script and it will force it to run elevated. No need to download anything.

:: BatchGotAdmin
:-------------------------------------
REM  --> Check for permissions
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system"

REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' (
    echo Requesting administrative privileges...
    goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )

:UACPrompt
    echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~s0", "", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"

    "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    exit /B

:gotAdmin
    if exist "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" ( del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" )
    pushd "%CD%"
    CD /D "%~dp0"
:--------------------------------------

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