Auto start a program (and run under other account) on user logon

Question

I really like Mark Russinovich's Process Explorer so I'm always running it. I would like to automate this task of manually starting this process up every time I logon.

But I want this program to run as domain administrator even though I logon as a local user. The reason being is I can manage (kill) processes/services running under domain accounts.

So how do I do that?

I suppose if I create a local service using sc create command I won't be able to interact with Process Explorer then? Will I be able to see the icon in the task tray and open it etc etc?

So is this at all possible?

Answer 1

You can use the runas command:

runas /user:Administrator "C:\Program Files\Process Explorer\procexp.exe"

The only problem is that a command prompt will ask you for your password and will remain up for the whole time Process Explorer is open.

Answer 2

Task Scheduler almost meets your requirements.

In Windows 7 (and I think Vista?):

• It is possible to trigger a task on log on.

• It is possible to designate who the task should run as (However, I don't think doing this will have the desired effect - as running the software as as another user might not make it visible to the current user).

• It is possible to set an task to run "with highest privileges" (ie, administrator / UAC elevated) if needed.

Answer 3

You can turn any program into a service with SrvAny, although I'm not certain SrvAny will work under Windows 7. You'll need to set it up so that the service is allowed to interact with the desktop. Try running it as Local System first. If that doesn't work, try it with the domain admin credentials.