| Be
a Temporary Administrator by using "RunAs" command
It's
a good security practice for administrators to logon with a user account
that is not a member of the administrators group, because viruses and
worms (and hackers) can take advantage of the fact that you're logged
on as an administrator. However, sometimes you need to be an administrator
to carry out some specific tasks. Wouldn't it be nice if you could run
a task as an administrator without having to logout and log back on again?
You can! It's called secondary logon and here's how to use it:
- Log on
to the computer with an account that is not an administrator.
- Click
Start and then click Control Panel.
- Switch
to Classic View.
- Right
click the Power Options icon. Notice that you have two options: Open
and Create Shortcut. Press the Esc key on the keyboard to close the
menu.
- Hold down
the SHIFT key on the keyboard. With the SHIFT key held down, right click
the Power Options icon. Click the Run as command.
- In the
Run As dialog box, select the The following user option. Click the down
arrow in the drop down list box and select a user that is an administrator.
Type in the account's password and then click OK. Note that this won't
work if the account you want to use doesn't have a password.
- Bingo!
The Power Options Properties dialog box opens under the authority (or
"context") of the administrator account you specified.
Using the
Power Options applet was an example, but you can use the Run as command
with any executable program. Right click a program name in the Start menu
or a program file in Explorer and you'll see the Run as option.
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