Windows 7 - Run as Different User

**Brink**

How to Run a Program as a Different User in Windows 7

Information

This will show you how to run a program as if it was running from a different user account on your computer while you are still logged on to your user account in Windows 7.

Note

This will only affect this instance of the program running, so you can open multiple instances of this progam as a different user per instance. Closing the program will end that program's instance running for that user.

Warning

The user account that you want to run the program as must be password protected.

RELATED LINKS:

Here's How:

1. Press and hold the Shift key and right click on the program's shortcut or EXE file, then click on Run as different user. (See screenshot below)

2. Type in the user name and password of the user account that you want to run this program as. (See screenshot below)

3. The program will now be running as that user.

4. When done, simply close the program to stop it from running as that user.

That's it,
Shawn

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grundmj · 12-02-2009

Good morning,

In windows xp if you did this you would see that the window is running as an administrator. Is that display no longer available with Windows 7? How do you know that you are running lets say, explorer.exe from an admin account? I have tried the Shift Right Click and selected Run As a Different user and there is nothing showing I am running it as an administrator. Is there a feature I need to enable? Thanks for your help.

**Brink** · 12-02-2009

Hello Grundmj, and welcome to Seven Forums.

After your press and hold shift and right click and click on "Run as different user", do you not get a log on dialog box??

You will be able to tell what user the program is running as through Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) under the Processes tab in the User-name column with the user account name that it is running as.

grundmj · 12-14-2009

Hello Brink,

We do get that dialog box, and when we login with Admin Credentials it opens a seperate Window. When the user trys to complete items in the Windows it says permissions denied and it worked in XP. Just trying to figure out what the cause would be. Thanks

**Brink** · 12-14-2009

Hello Grundmj,

Run as administrator would be different than "Run as Different User". You should be able to right click on the application, and click on "Run as administrator". If you are not in a administrator account, it would then ask you for that computer administrator's user name and password.

Opportunitor · 4 Weeks Ago

The function 'Run as different user', when holding Shift, doesn't appear to me. Which Registry-key may be added to fix this option?

**Brink** · 4 Weeks Ago

Hello Opportunitor, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you in a administrator account? Is this with all or one program or program shortcut that it's not available for?

ilps2009 · 2 Weeks Ago

I have a question that is a slight variation from the above.

How can you store the desire to run as a different user in the desktop shortcut as we were able to do in XP?
In XP you could right click on the shortcut icon, select properties, advanced option in the Shortcut tab of properties let you choose an option to run with different credentials. I may have missed it, but I see nothing similar in 7.

**Brink** · 2 Weeks Ago

Hello Ilps,

You might be able to create a script or batch file that may allow this, but I'm uncertain as to how to do this if it's possible.

ilps2009 · 2 Weeks Ago

Thanks Brink!

Yes, that is how I solved it a couple weeks ago. For example, here is the target command to run Admin for AD Users & Computers (which is why I need the functionality):

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /noprofile /user:domain\username "mmc %SystemRoot%\system32\dsa.msc"

Just did not make sense that MS would revoke such a useful and seemingly benign capability. I had to be missing something. Go figure!