Obtain temp admin rights with standard account?

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It used to be that, when required, a standard user who knows the admin password could enter those credentials on the fly whenever required, such as to install a new piece of software or an update.

Now Windows 8.1 provides the option to temporarily use the admin acct and to enter the admin’s password on an ad hoc basis. However, whenever I try this option, absolutely nothing happens. The workaround (which isn’t one) forces me to switch user accounts to my admin acct, conduct the installation, then switch users back to my std. acct.

What do I have to change in Win 8.1 to make it do what it offers to do when I’m logged in using my std. acct. credentials?

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When you are in the desktop and need to run a program with admin rights you need to right click on the shortcut or exe file and select “Run as administrator”.

If you are on the start screen, right click the program tile. The menu bar displayed at the bottom of the screen has a “Run as administrator” icon.

Joe

--Joe

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In current Windows versions “Run as administrator” does not mean “Run with the administrator account”. What is actually happening is that it grants you your greatest privilege level. If you are an administrator running with UAC you’ll get to run with admin privileges. But if you are not an admin you can’t get admin privileges this way.

To actually get admin privileges from a non-admin account use right click and choose “Run as different user”. Then provide your admin account credentials. (“Secondary Logon Service” has to be running.)

When you are in the desktop and need to run a program with admin rights you need to right click on the shortcut or exe file and select “Run as administrator”.

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In current Windows versions “Run as administrator” does not mean “Run with the administrator account”. What is actually happening is that it grants you your greatest privilege level. If you are an administrator running with UAC you’ll get to run with admin privileges. But if you are not an admin you can’t get admin privileges this way.

To actually get admin privileges from a non-admin account use right click and choose “Run as different user”. Then provide your admin account credentials. (“Secondary Logon Service” has to be running.)

This does not seem to be correct in my recent testing.

On my Win 7 HP backup/test machine I did the following:

[*]Created a Standard User account.
[*]Logged on to the Standard User account.
[*]Entered Task Scheduler and no tasks were present.
[*]Tried to create a new task to run from the Administrator account which failed due to access restrictions.
35627-TaskSch2
[*]Started Task Scheduler selecting “Run as Administrator”
[*]Entered Administrator Password when prompted.
[*]Task Scheduler shows all my tasks which were setup under the Administrator account.
[*]Tried to run CCleaner (requires Admin Access) and failed.
35628-ccleanerfail
[*]Tried to run CCleaner selecting “Run as Administrator”, entered Admin Password when requested and CCleaner ran.

So it would seem to me that you can get Full Administrator access from a Standard User account via the “Run as Administrator” option.

FYI: I was playing with Task Scheduler as a way to get the Standard User account to run programs with the Administrator account but couldn’t get this to work. Anyone know how?

HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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If only it were so easy. (This is not the solution I’m seeking.)

When I’m logged on using my standard user account and an app requires admin rights, it lets me pop up a box that is divided horizontally. One option is to use a smartcard; the other is to run as my admin acct. I choose to run as my admin acct, which then produces a field in which I am to enter my admin password. I do this and then NOTHING happens.

This is the problem; Win 8.1 won’t let me run anything requiring admin rights when I’m logged on using my standard user account.

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If only it were so easy. (This is not the solution I’m seeking.)

When I’m logged on using my standard user account and an app requires admin rights, it lets me pop up a box that is divided horizontally. One option is to use a smartcard; the other is to run as my admin acct. I choose to run as my admin acct, which then produces a field in which I am to enter my admin password. I do this and then NOTHING happens.

This is the problem; Win 8.1 won’t let me run anything requiring admin rights when I’m logged on using my standard user account.

Do you mean the app does not run at all?

Joe

--Joe

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“I do this and then NOTHING happens.”

What part of this is confusing? Sorry, but your assessment is correct… the app does not run. When I wrote that “NOTHING happens,” that’s what that means. The app does not run with my admin credentials. Only when I physically switch users to my admin account am I able to proceed with the app upgrade/installation, or whatever it is that requires admin credentials before it will proceed. This is NOT how prior versions of Windows behaved (and isn’t the only bizarre behavior I’ve encountered when I upgraded to 8.1 from 8.0).

Maybe ask Fred or Woody if they’ve run into this?

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”I do this and then NOTHING happens.”

What part of this is confusing? Sorry, but your assessment is correct… the app does not run. When I wrote that “NOTHING happens,” that’s what that means. The app does not run with my admin credentials. Only when I physically switch users to my admin account am I able to proceed with the app upgrade/installation, or whatever it is that requires admin credentials before it will proceed. This is NOT how prior versions of Windows behaved (and isn’t the only bizarre behavior I’ve encountered when I upgraded to 8.1 from 8.0).

I’ve had too many people respond the same way but meant “nothing happened differently that when I tried it before” or “it ran but did not work correctly” or what you meant “nothing ran at all”. I was just trying to clarify the situation.

Perhaps your standard user account is corrupt. Have you tried creating a new standard user?

Is this a domain based PC?

Joe

--Joe

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C.N.,

Does the prompt for password also have a box for the UserID? You’ll have to change that also to your Admin Account UserID. If that is not present there is another problem. Sorry I don’t have a Std user acct to test. HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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No, it’s already entered.

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This is yet another reason why I do not bother with a Standard account. My wife and I are exclusive users of our laptops so it really is not necessary.

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There is a critical reason to run as non-admin regardless of the physical security of your computer. If and when you encounter a trojan/virus it will be running at your privilege level. If you are an admin so is the malware. And it will have permissions to modify system files, hide itself with a root kit etc. Malware running with normal user privileges is extremely limited in the damage it can cause to the system.

This is yet another reason why I do not bother with a Standard account. My wife and I are exclusive users of our laptops so it really is not necessary.

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Fred or Woody do not frequent the Lounge often. Most questions are answered by the other users here.

It sounds as though something seems to be amiss with your installation. I would start by opening an elevated command prompt (from your administrator account) and type “sfc /scannow” without the quotes. This might find and fix the problem with your system files. If this does not find anything, you might have to delete your standard account and create a new one to fix the problem.

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At first I was unable to even open the resultant CBS.LOG file as admin.

But I tried again several hours later as STD_USER, successfully instructing the OS to allow me to do so using my admin creds. This is a portion of what it reported, pertaining to certain files that sfc /scannow could not repair:

000007fd [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:36{18}]”Amd64CNBJ2530.DPB” of prncacla.inf, Version = 6.3.9600.16384, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type = [l:24{12}]”driverUpdate”, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
000007ff [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:36{18}]”Amd64CNBJ2530.DPB” of prncacla.inf, Version = 6.3.9600.16384, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type = [l:24{12}]”driverUpdate”, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch

Now I’m not sure why Win 8.1 was trying to repair a file(s) pertaining to an AMD processor when, if the routine bothered to first poll the registry, it would quickly discover that I was running it on an Intel-powered box. Anyway, the fact that I could finally do something at the STD_USER level using admin creds. gives me hope that the scan procedure did, in fact, repair something that was preventing the use of these higher-level creds. while logged as STD_USER.

Incidentally, when I used the approved M$ procedure to upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1, I was dismayed to learn that the upgrade messed with many personal settings, including some for apps where the upgrade had no business. For example, I run J River Media Center and the upgrade blew out all of my app-centric playlists. I have never seen such errant behavior for a simple upgrade, and I’ve been using Windows since version 1.0 (a runtime version that shipped with the first Aldus PageMaker back in ’86). I’ve also participated in many Windows beta programs over the years, so this upgrade was a bit bizarre in its overall performance.

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The reference to the AMD64 architecture results from the fact that it was AMD who created the first specification for the 64 bit version of the x86 instruction set. It does not denote a specific CPU manufacturer, but a CPU architecture – basically meaning you are running a 64 bit CPU.

I would be inclined to agree about the upgrade to 8.1 – it wasn’t as problem free as one would expect.

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Interesting, Very Interesting!

I did a little more research and it seems that you can get a Scheduled Task to run in a Standard User account by setting it up in the Admin Account and doing the following:
[List=1]
[*]Goto C:WindowsSystem32Tasks find the related task.
[*]Assign “read and execute” rights to the user you want to be able to access it.
[*]Be careful to assign to “current object only”.
[*]Then the task will be visible and runnable from the limited user and if you saved your credentials within it and checked “run whether user is logged on or not” – it will work.
[/List]
Although this works in my testing: (starting SysInternals AutoRuns)
35629-RunningTasks
The task does NOT show in Task Manager and there is no access to the User Interface (no icon on the task bar and no window).
35630-Taskmanager
I had to kill the task from the Task Scheduler to get it to stop.

Comments?
:cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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