Submitted by Jeff Botts
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(The website is in German but has a translation link at the top.)
This is a great tool allowing users with standard rights to run programs with local admin privileges. It is based on SuDown and integrated in the Windows shell. Just right click on the icon of the program you want to run as admin and the context menu will give you the option to "Start as Administrator". The current stable version doesn't support global groups, so it won't work on computers in a Windows domain. There is a beta that the developer put out on 02/24/2008 that is very stable and it works with global groups, too.
See about the new features of the latest release in the comments below.
How about RunItAs, from http://www.chessware.ch ? Or Steel-Runas, from http://www.steelsonic.com ?
Thanks for the links!
What’s the difference between surun and a Shift-right click runas directly in the Windows explorer?
Daniel, I didn’t try SuRun, but the developer claims that it is more secure because key loggers don’t work. He also wrote that you usually run into problems if you install software using the run as feature of Windows Explorer.
This program, now in version 1.2 is a major effort to simplify using a limited user account (LUA) for most of your computer work. I was rather intimidated by the apparent complexity and the web site being in German – a translated link is available but it’s not always clear. But when I tried it I have found it really amazing. It is in very clear English, not German. The program allows you to define rights for your limited accounts from your Admin acccount. You can run just most Windows programs from your limited account with Admin rights by a simple right click and have the option to open Control Panel and all it’s compenents with Admin rights. A small icon in the system tray turns red whenever a program opens with admin rights and turns back to Green when that program is closed so you always know when you are running anything with Admin rights. At the same time clearly worded popups tell you what program is running with Admin rights.
It allows yout to run Add-Remove programs from your Limited Account. Since it raises that account temporarily to the rights of an Admin account you can install and configure software from that account and the settings will immediately apply to that account which is very convenient. Using the usual RunAs command installs programs with the credentials of your Admin account so you have to configure it all over again for your limited account.
This program may not be perfect but the author is continuing to fix bugs and has an english section on his forum. It really deserves a test if you like the idea of running under a LUA account.
I wanted to make you aware of the release of version 1.2.0.6 on March 1st, 2009. There has been a lot added and patched since I first posted this in August 2008. Kay has been working hard on this project. Kudos to Kay.
Thanks! I added a note in the article.