How to Start a Specific Program as an Administrator

Owing to security reasons, working with a user account with restricted rights is advisable. However,sometimes you must carry out some tasks as an administrator, eg. setting up a new tool.

You can gain higher rights using the command “runas” or with the context command “run as” in XP or “run as administrator” in Vista. For that, open the “Run” command in XP in the start menu and type in the next “runas” dialog followed by the required parameters. What is decisive here is the specification of the desired user. For that, use the option “/user:” and followed by the user name in the format “Domains\Users”.
As long as it is an independent computer without a domain connection, specifying the details of the respective user account is sufficient. Finally, enter the name of the desired program with the complete path. The command would look like:

Runas /user:Administrator cmd.exe .

Then enter the password in the command prompt. Alternatively, right click on an executable file in Windows  Explorer. Then you can start the context command “Run as” in XP and “Run as administrator” in Vista.

In Vista, also confirm the user account control with “Continue”. In the dialog, select the admin account and identify yourself by entering the relevant password. If the command does not work, and if it delivers an error message, then the responsible service has probably stopped on the computer or is deactivated. To correct this, open “Administration” in the Control Panel and then “Services”. Search the entry “Secondary Login” in the list. Check in the adjacent columns that the status is “Started” and the auto start type is “Automatic”. In case of deviating settings, double click on the service to edit and change the setting in the combination field “Start type” to “Automatic”. Confirm with “Accept”. Now you can directly “Start” the service. Finally, confirm the configuration by clicking “OK”.

Category: Tips