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RANU: Running Admin Tasks easily

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A while back I described the set of shortcuts I use to run things as Administrator, even though I'm logged on as a Limited User.

I've packaged them up for dowload. Enjoy.

Overview

Logging on as a restricted user greatly increases security, protecting you from certain virus & trojan horse attacks, and adheres to the "principle of least priviledge".

However, if your domain user account is a normal user on your machine, it can be challenging to perform certain administrative tasks, like:

  • Control Panel applets
  • Administative Tools
  • Install software from Corpnet
  • Edit HKLM reg keys

This collection of shortcuts make it easier to run these tools as Administrator.

Setup:

I like to use it as a toolbar on my Windows Task Bar.

  1. (Optional) Copy to your local machine
  2. RClick on the Windows Task Bar
  3. Select Toolbars->New Toolbar
  4. Point to the Admin Tasks folder

Also, it's a good idea to teach windows to run each explorer window as a separate process. This way you can have both Administrator and User explorers open at the same time. See Aaron Margosis' blog for more info.

Details:

CMD

Launch a command prompt as Administrator

CMD w Network Launch a command prompt as Administartor, but with your network credentials

Explorer w Network

Launch explorer.exe as Administartor, but with your network credentials. Requires setting ExplorerSeparateProcess (see above).

Page Defrag

A sysinternals tool that I like for defragmenting my pagefile.

Regedit

Runs regedit as Administrator (relies on a possibly undocumented option to regedit).

Task Manager

Runs Task Manager as Administrator

Control Panel

Runs CPL control panel applets.

Administrative Tools

MMC Snap-ins that appear in Control Panel->Administrative Tools

Administrative Tools->More

Most of these appear under the the Computer Management MMC snap-in, but here you have direct access to them

Comments

  • Anonymous
    July 14, 2004
    A couple of things:

    1) The issue with windows not being painted when using /netonly appears to be fixed in XP SP2. I think it had to do with WindowStations.

    2) You can also launch iexplore.exe as a standin for explorer.exe. This way you won't have to set "Launch in separate in process". If you use use -e -nohome, it's close enough.

    Kiliman
  • Anonymous
    July 14, 2004
    Please fix the mime type on the server for the zip file.

    http://www.danfernandez.com/view/view.aspx?ID=40

    Thanks!
  • Anonymous
    July 19, 2004
    Raj: Dan has fixed MIME type handling on his server; it should be better now.

    Thanks again to Dan for hosting our files.
  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    PingBack from http://barstoolsite.info/story.php?id=4825