Useful Tools

1 Defender (aka eCondom) - Run IE on Windows XP with lower privileges.
ACL View - View and edit file system ACLs in Windows XP Home without having to boot into safe mode.
AdminToolsLauncher - Starter Application for most windows tools requiring administrative rights.
Advanced Run - Free launcher that allows you to run any program, run any command line command, open and edit and print documents on behalf of any user account without switching between users.
Am I Local Admin - How to tell if you're currently an administrator.
Application Rights Auditor - Identify which applications require administrative privileges.
Branding Explorer - How to launch IE/Explorer so that it shows your current privilege level (cf PrivBar).
DropMyRights - Run any command with lower privileges.
Launch Admin - Extension to MakeMeAdmin using a system tray application.
LUA Buglight - Identify the specific causes of LUA bugs.
MakeMeAdmin - Give your user account temporary admin privileges.
MiniRunAs - A minimalist open-source RunAs.
MyRunAs - Creates an executables containing encrypted administrator's credentials.
Ps Exec - Runs processes remotely, including as a limited user.
Privilege Manager - A group policy extension for dynamically raising or lowering the permissions of targeted processes. Free for use in local GPOs.
PrivBar - An IE/Explorer toolbar to show your current privilege level (cf Branding Explorer).
RunAs - The built-in way to run a command with different privileges.
RunAsAdmin Explorer - Give your shell lower privileges but keep an admin shortcut around.
RunAs Professional - Lets any account, even LUAs, run a particular executable as a different (more privileged) user.
SafeDisc - Microsoft utility to run games under a non-administrator account.
SetSAFER - Force an application to always run with lower privileges.
sudo Wn - Launch programs under your account, but with admin privileges. Like WinSUDO, but more refined.
SUperior SU - Free tool that allows scripting and instantly switching desktop to different users.
WinSUDO - Launch programs under your account, but with admin privileges.
Sudo For Windows (sudowin) - Allows authorized users to launch processes with elevated privileges using their own passphrase. Unlike the runas command, Sudo for Windows preserves the user's profile and ownership of created objects.

Comments

From Nexxus6 [209.37.234.254] - 3/7/05 5:40 AM

http://www.joeware.net/win/free/tools/cpau.htm

Command line tool for starting process in alternate security context. Basically this is a runas replacement. Also allows you to create job files and encode the id, password, and command line in a file so it can be used by normal users.

From jtwebb - 3/24/05 8:37 PM

Hi non-adminers,

I recently finished the first stage of project to make runas priv-escalation easier,
by preserving the same general GUI interface that users are used to
(ie Start Menu->Admin Action etc). �

See this link for example:
http://remnant.ath.cx/winsudo/screenshots.html
sorry if this is slow, extremely old laptop and small uplink :-)

Basically, I've just shortcutted a collection of runas scripts and tied in the appropriate icons.
I've also tagged in some minimal event logging to archive when runas-calls were made via the scripts.

Currently, I've only completed a XPSP2 shortcut/script collection, and still need to:
- Fix an issue with calls to joy.cpl
- Add a script to update scripts with renamed admin or alternate admin group accounts.

If anyone has comments, suggestions, "bug-reports", or would like to help out with this project
please let me know.

From timcad [150.253.80.249] - 7/29/05 11:38 AM

Anyone have any experience with this program: http://www.waybeyonduk.com/DUST/ It looks promising. It claims to allow fast user switching while part of a domain.

From BNN [209.128.8.134] - 10/2/05 8:31 PM

Three more Run As utils are Sanur available at http://www.commandline.co.uk/sanur/

, Cpau http://joeware.net/win/free/tools/cpau.htm

and LSRunas http://www.lansweeper.com/ls/lsrunasold.aspx

From Vittorio Pavesi [62.108.224.101] - 1/27/06 1:21 AM

I developed an year ago another tool called MyRunAS, it's FREE

For more informations see my site: www.vittorio.tk

From 155.38.30.111 - 2/8/06 6:31 AM

The latest version of SysInternals' Process Explorer now includes Runas and Run As Limited User commands...

From 155.38.30.125 - 3/15/06 5:03 AM

Mark Russinovich has a new blog entry on using Sysinternals' Process Explorer and PsExec to run apps with limited user rights and promises a following post that will examine User Account Control in Vista.

http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2006/03/running-as-limited-user-easy-way.html

From int24h [84.119.30.41] - 3/28/06 12:38 PM

Hi guys :) I think you should take a look at SUPEREXEC v3.0. It's a great tool written by a french MS MVP (Jean-Claude BELLAMY). http://www.bellamyjc.org/en/superexec.html It's also available in french : http://www.bellamyjc.org/fr/superexec.html Regards

From 155.38.30.125 - 4/26/06 8:45 AM

Vista's User Account Protection takes a beating:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/microsoft_vista.html

From Matt Fries [208.42.90.188] - 6/5/06 1:27 PM

I should have put my comment here first, rather than under 'other resources'...

I have created a little utility that essentially gives MakeMeAdmin a graphical user interface. It's called Adwin, and you can find it at my homepage. I administrate about 100 machines that are not members of a domain, so it's useful to just put it on a shared drive, and I can run it whenever I'm at a user's desk and need to elevate the user's privileges temporarily.

I also wrote it to be expandable, so other administrators can add commands to it, and the program will grow based on the needs of the people who use it.

From pkravchenko - 1/14/08 1:48 PM

There is another program called "MyRunas" developed by a French author Abdl Yezza:

http://abdel.yezza.free.fr/introduction/introduction.htm#myrunas

It seems to work fine. You can see a screenshot of it here:

http://abdel.yezza.free.fr/introduction/runasv2/runasv2.gif

and a different version here:

http://abdel.yezza.free.fr/introduction/myrunas/myrunas.gif

Although the web site is in French, do a text search for "runas" on the page and you will eventually find 2 different files for 2 different versions of the program: runasv2.zip and myrunas.zip.

I would be interested to know of other people's experience with this.

�

Last Modified 10/27/08 10:28 AM