Elevated Program Shortcut - Create for Standard User

How to Create an Elevated Program Shortcut Any User is able to Run in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8​

   Information

This will show you how to create an elevated program shortcut that allows any user (ex: Standard user) to be able to run a program that runs as administrator without being prompted to enter the administator's password each time in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

   Note

If the user you want to have this shortcut has been restricted with Parental Controls in Windows 7 with it set as Standard Account can only use the programs I allow, then they will not be able to use the shortcut in this tutorial since they will not be allowed to use the runas.exe file used by this shortcut. Windows 7 will not allow runas.exe to be added to the allowed to run list.

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If the user you want to have this shortcut has been restricted with Family Safety in Windows 8 with it set as (user) can only use the apps I allow, then they will not be able to use the shortcut in this tutorial since they will not be allowed to use the runas.exe file used by this shortcut. Windows 8 will not allow runas.exe to be added to the allowed to run list.

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You will not be able to do this in Vista Starter, Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Windows 7 Home Basic, and Windows 7 Starter editions since the runas /savecred switch option is not available and will be ignored in them.

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If you disable the built-in Administrator account, the elevated shortcut will stop working until you enable the built-in Administrator again. This is because the elevated shortcut uses the password of the built-in Administrator to approve running it.

OPTION ONE

To Create Elevated Shortcut for User using RunasSPC Program

1. Download the free RunasSPC program in a .zip file at the site below.

Download


2. The link below can help show you how to use the program.
Runas Spc guidance and examples

OPTION TWO

To Create Elevated Shortcut for User using runas Command

   Tip

This option uses the runas command included in Windows.

The Administrator's password (credential) used by the elevated shortcut is encrypted and stored in the Credential Manager (Control Panel (icons view)) as an "interactive logon" entry under Windows Credentials for only that user account like below.

The Administrator account's password cannot be viewed.

If you like, you can Remove (delete) this credential at anytime in Credential Manager to strip the password from the elevated shortcut to make it ask for the password again when opened like in step 18 below.

   Warning

This elevated shortcut creates a security hole.

It would be best to only do this with a trusted user.

Once you have created the elevated shortcut, the user can use the built-in Administrator's saved credentials in Credential Manager along with the command below to run and access anything they want on the computer with the same rights as the built-in Administrator.

RUNAS /savecred /user:administrator "command to run"

1. If you have not already, enable the built-in elevated "Administrator" account, and create a password for it.

   Warning

You must use the actual built-in Administrator account, and not just another administrator type user account. If you don't the shortcut will not work.

2. Log in to the built-in Administrator account, right click or press and hold on an empty space on the desktop, and click/tap on New and Shortcut.


3. Type the location below into the location area, and click/tap on the Next button. (see screenshot below)

   Note

• You would substitute ComputerName in the command below with the actual computer name.
• If the Administrator account has been renamed, then you would also need to substitute Administrator in the command below with the new name.
• You would substitute Full path to program's exe file in the command below with the actual full path of the elevated program's exe file within quotes that you want to have the standard user be able to run.

runas /user:[B][COLOR=red]ComputerName[/COLOR][/B]\[B]Administrator[/B] /savecred "[B][COLOR=red]Full path to program's exe file[/COLOR][/B]"

For example: I would like to have a standard user to be able to run CCleaner without me or them having to enter the Administrator's account password each time. For this, I would type this:

runas /user:[B][COLOR=red]Brink-PC[/COLOR][/B]\[B]Administrator[/B] /savecred "[B][COLOR=red]C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner.exe[/COLOR][/B]"

3. Type in the name of the program (ex: CCleaner), and click/tap on the Finish button. (see screenshot below)

4. Right click or press and hold on the new shortcut, click/tap on Properties, Shortcut tab, and on the Change Icon button. (see screenshot below)

5. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

6. Click/tap on the Browse button, navigate to the location of the program's (ex: CCleaner) exe file, click on Open, select the program's icon, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)




7. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

8. While still logged in to the "Administrator" account, copy the shortcut to the desktop folder of the user account (ex: Test) that you would like to be able to run this elevated program without getting a UAC prompt or having to provide the administrator's password for it.

9. Right click or swipe down on the shortcut on the user's desktop that you just copied to, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot above)

10. Click/tap on the Security tab, and Advanced button. (see screenshot below)

11. Select the user account (ex: Test) that the elevated shortcut is for, and click/tap on the Disable inheritance button. (see screenshot below)

12. Click/tap on Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object. (see screenshot below)

13. Select the user account (ex: Test), and click/tap on the Edit button. (see screenshot below)

14. Make sure that only the Read & execute and Read "Allow" permissions are checked, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This will prevent the user (ex: Test) from being able to change the target of the elevated shortcut, and only be able to run the program the elevated shortcut was created to run.

15. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

16. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

17. Log on to the user account (ex: Test) that you made a copy of this shortcut to, and run the shortcut.

18. In the command prompt that opened, type in your built-in Administrator account's password and press Enter. You will not see the password while you are typing it in. (see screenshot below)

NOTE: You will only have to enter the Administrator's password for only the first time that this shortcut is ran in the user account (ex: Test). Afterwards, it will be remembered and entered automatically for the user when they run it without anyone being able to see the password.

19. In Vista and Windows 7, the user can now Pin to Taskbar (Windows 7 only) or Pin to Start Menu, add to Quick Launch, assign a keyboard shortcut to it, or move this shortcut to where you like for easy use.

20. In Windows 8 and 8.1, the user can Pin to Taskbar on desktop, Pin to Start screen, add to Quick Launch, assign a keyboard shortcut to it, or move this shortcut to where you like for easy use.





That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Create a Elevated Program Shortcut without a UAC Prompt
• How to Run a Program as an Administrator in Windows 7
• How to See if Process is running as administrator (elevated) in Vista and Windows 7
• How to See if Process is running as administrator (elevated) in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Change UAC Notification Settings in Windows 7
• How to Run a Program as a Different User in Windows 7
• How to Create a Shortcut to Run a Program as a Specified User
• How to Rename the Windows 7 Built-in Administrator Account
• How to Change Behavior of User Account Control (UAC) Prompt for Standard Users

 

[Brink]

I'm not sure it'll work for a standard user, but this was what I was thinking as a workaround:

1. Create the elevated program shortcut that any user (ex: standard users) can run using the tutorial on the first page here, save it in a "C:\Users\Public" folder, and make sure it's working.
2. Next, use the tutorial below to create the first task to run the elevated program shortcut from 1 above.
3. When you get to step 23 using while still using the same tutorial below, use the "run at startup as a task" option to run the elevated program shortcut from 2 above created from the task.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11949-elevated-program-shortcut-without-uac-prompt-create.html

The thinking behind this is that the shortcut from 1 actually runs as the Administrator instead of the standard user, so it may be able to run at startup for the standard user account when running it using 2 and 3. No guarantees, but it's worth a try.

 

[Soyabeaner]

Won't work for users under Parental Controls

This method fails to work on a standard user restricted by Parental Controls (Windows 7 x64 Home Premium). I get a popup from Parental Controls about runas.exe, which can't be addded to the whitelist even by an administrator. Likely due to a security design.

 

[Brink]

Hello Soyabeaner,

Yeah, if you restricted apps with Parental Controls, then yes it's by design to not allow runas.exe to the "allowed" list since runas.exe could be used to run anything by the standard user.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/54397-parental-controls-allow-block-specific-programs.html

 

[Carib04]

Thanks for the tutorial

I really appreciate the tutorial. I can definitely use this at work however what brought me here is something I am trying to do at home.

I followed the tutorial and it seems to have worked up to the point where the program should start running. I am not asked for the password anymore. The following is copy past of the output from the batch file.

C:\Users\wheel_000\Desktop>C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:<computer name>\Administ
rator /savecred "C:\Program Files (x86)\Kill3rCombo\Elsword\elsword.exe"
Attempting to start C:\Program Files (x86)\Kill3rCombo\Elsword\elsword.exe as us
er "Marcospc\Administrator" ...
C:\Users\wheel_000\Desktop>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

When I click on the desktop icon the cmd window pops up then disappears. The above is the output of th e batch file. Will this program not run this way?

 

[Brink]

Hello Carib, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It will only ask for the "Administrator" account's password the first time the use runs the shortcut. Afterwards, it will just run the elevated shortcut when opened.

I'm not sure how you set up this shortcut, but you don't want to run the program from a .bat file. Instead, you would want to run it directly as in the steps in the tutorial.

Please clarify how you set this up, and we'll go from there.

 

[Carib04]

Sorry about that~!

I followed the instructions and read all the posts in the thread.
The short cut was set up per instructions and the password was only entered once during the first time the short cut was used.
Afterwards when the short cut is used what happens is the cmd prompt pops up and disappears but the program does not run.

I only run the .bat file to keep the command prompt from disappearing for troubleshooting purposes only and not to run the program.

 

[Brink]

It's possible that the password may not have been entered correctly the first time.

Go ahead and delete the stored password in Credential Manager as per the yellow tip box at the bottom of the tutorial. This way it will ask for the password again the next time you run the elevated shortcut to see if this may be the case.

Since this is for an online role-playing game (MMORPG), it may not work for it.

 

[Carib04]

Brink,

Thanks for the advice, I logged into the built in admin account. Deleted the password as shown in the procedure, then ran the shortcut in the user account. It behaved as if the password was never erased.
I rebooted the PC and tried it again in the user account and again it behaved as if the password was never erased.

So I logged into the build in admin account and clicked on the shortcut. This time it did ask for a password but I did not input it.

I deleted the shortcut in the user account then copied the new shortcut to the user account (not really new short cut). I logged into the user account and ran the shortcut but it did not ask for a password.

I log back into the built in admin account and run the shortcut and I am prompted once again for a password. This time I do input the password but the program never runs. It does not run in the built in admin or in the user account.

If the shortcut works, it should work in any of the accounts correct?
The only time the game runs in any account is if a regular shortcut or directly accessing the .exe file.

Again thanks for looking into this.

PS.
So I went into the user account and right clicked on the shortcut. This time I was prompted for a password. I input the password but the game still does not run.
I will conclude that this does not work for the game.

Love the site!!

 

[Brink]

Correct, the elevated shortcut would have worked in any account you copy it to, but it will ask for a password one the first time in each account it's opened the first time in to save the credentials.

It doesn't look like it's going to work for this game. Games seem to not always work with this method.

 

[Layback Bear]

Just seen this Tutorial and I love it. It allows me to do things on different drives only. If I create different partitions will I be able to select different partitions on different drives only?

 

[Brink]

Just seen this Tutorial and I love it. It allows me to do things on different drives only. If I create different partitions will I be able to select different partitions on different drives only?

Hello Jack,

Uh ?? :huh:

 

[Layback Bear]

Okay my brain had a fart session.
I will try again.
This Tutorial will work on any partition (E,F,G) I select no mater what disc drive (0,1,2) the partition is on.

As you know I sometimes get crazy.

The reason I ask is I'm trying to find out if I select F partition on Disk 1 and run a command will if effect any other partition like C on Disk 0.

 

[Brink]

Ah, ok. Yep, you can create an elevated shortcut to run whatever wherever.

 

[Layback Bear]

Thank you Shawn.
I just wanted to be sure if I start tinkering on partition F with cmd prompt it didn't effect other partitions. I feel better now.

 

[Brink]

Anytime mate.

 

[michael830]

Unable to find "Disable inheritance button"

Hi Brink,

I got up to step 11 but was unable to find the "Disable inheritance button." Has this changed due to a Microsoft update? I am using Windows 7 64 bit Professional.

11. Select the user account (ex: Test), and click/tap on the Disable inheritance button. (see screenshot below)

 

[Brink]

Hello Michael, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing what you see instead.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[JerometheGiraff]

I'm not sure it'll work for a standard user, but this was what I was thinking as a workaround:

1. Create the elevated program shortcut that any user (ex: standard users) can run using the tutorial on the first page here, save it in a "C:\Users\Public" folder, and make sure it's working.
2. Next, use the tutorial below to create the first task to run the elevated program shortcut from 1 above.
3. When you get to step 23 using while still using the same tutorial below, use the "run at startup as a task" option to run the elevated program shortcut from 2 above created from the task.

The thinking behind this is that the shortcut from 1 actually runs as the Administrator instead of the standard user, so it may be able to run at startup for the standard user account when running it using 2 and 3. No guarantees, but it's worth a try.

What tutorial below ?

 

[Brink]

Sorry about that Chris. Here you go.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11949-elevated-program-shortcut-without-uac-prompt-create.html

 

[JerometheGiraff]

How do I find the location of programs that are automatically starting up when windows boots ? The Start-up folder doesn't contain them. I want to find their location while they are in the taskbar flashing waiting for an administrator password.