How to Run Program as a Different User in Windows 7 and Windows 8
InformationThis 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 and Windows 8.
NoteThis 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.
- The Secondary Logon service needs to be set to Manual and not be disabled. By default, it is set to Manual unless changed.
OPTION ONETo "Run as different user" using Context Menu
1. Press and hold the Shift key and right click on the program's shortcut or BAT, CMD, EXE, MSC, or MSI file, then click/tap 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)
NOTE: If the user account is on a domain, then you would use UserName@Domain or Domain\UserName for the user name instead.
3. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.
4. The program will now be running as that user.
5. When done, simply close the program to stop it from running as that user.
OPTION TWOTo "Run as different user" from Start Application Bar
NOTE: This option is only for Windows 8.
1. For how, see: How to Add or Remove "Run as Different User" from Context Menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8
OPTION THREETo "Run as different user" using RUNAS Command in Command Prompt
1. Open a command prompt.
2. In the command prompt, type the command below, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You would substitute USER-NAME in the command with the actual name of the user account that you want to run the program as. If the user account is on a domain, then you would use UserName@Domain or Domain\UserName for the user name instead.
runas /user:USER-NAME "C:\full\path\of\Program.exe"
For example, if I wanted to run Notepad as the test user, I would type this command below.
runas /user:test "C:\Windows\system32\notepad.exe"
3. Type in the password of the user account that you want to run this program as. (see screenshot above)That's it,
4. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.
5. The program will now be running as that user.
6. When done, simply close the program to stop it from running as that user.
TipTo Create a RunAs Shortcut for the Program
ORYou will now be able to just run this shortcut or .bat file to have the program runas the user you want.
- Open Notepad.
- Type the command from step 2 above in Notepad.
- Click on File (menu bar) and Save as in Notepad.
- Navigate to your desktop.
- Type in name-you-want.bat, and click on the Save button.
Shawn
Related Tutorials
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- Add "Run in Separate Memory Space" to Windows 7 Run Command
- How to Add or Remove "Run as Different User" from Context Menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8
- How to Use "Run as different user" Context Menu Item With or Without Shift+Right Click
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Run as Different User
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New #1
Run as Different User
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.
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New #2
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.
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New #3
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
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New #4
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.
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New #5
The function 'Run as different user', when holding Shift, doesn't appear to me. Which Registry-key may be added to fix this option?
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New #6
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?
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New #7
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.
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New #8
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.
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New #9
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!
Run as Different User
How to Run Program as a Different User in Windows 7 and Windows 8Published by Brink
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