How to open user accounts with "run as"?

[Nolonemo]

I have the user type for the account everyone uses my home pc set to "limited" to reduce the risk that my kid will do something wierd to the system. However, when I want to do some types of admin stuff, I have to log off, log on as administrator, change the main accout user type to "administrator", log off and log back on as the main user, which is sort of a pain.

In the properties for executable shortcuts, you can activate the "run as" feature in the context menu, so you can run the executable as an administrator, and I have done this with the program menu shortcut for the restore point applet so that I can set restore points when the logged in user type is "limited," for instance, when I am using "run as" to install a new program as an administrator.

I'd like to do the same thing for the User Groups applet, so I could run the applet as an administrator, and change the main user type to "administrator." If I have changed the main user type to "administrator," I can in fact check the box in the properties of the User Groups shortcut I created on the desktop to active the "run as" feature, but it won't stick, i.e., the option doesn't appear in the context menu, and when I reopen the shortcut properties window, the checkbox has been cleared.

Any suggestions (besides not being so wordy!)

Thanks.

[hkhalil]

I don't know if it helps you, but I like to have a DOS prompt that has admin rights.

If you create a new shortcut to:

%windir%\system32\runas.exe /user:YOURCOMPUTERNAME\ADMINISTRATOR cmd

When you launch this shortcut, it will ask for the password and you get a prompt to launch what you like. You can change cmd to the name of the program or link you want to run (you may need to give the full path if it's not a built-in windows file eg services.msc)

hope it helps hkhalil

[yossarian]

Just remember though that if you're installing applications, it's still best to actually log into the administrator account instead of executing the installer with runas.

This is because some programs(eg. Exact Audio Copy) need to register certain things with you logged in as the admin at the time for them to work properly.