How to launch a GUI Windows application with administrator rights without asking for the pasword from the user?

Question

The user using the computer logs-in to the Windows 7 Professional system through an Active Directory domain and has no administrative rights.

I am the administrator and can give him the rights but, for obvious reasons, don't want to.

The user needs to use one special application (a surveillance dashboard) that demands local administrative rights.

So I need the user to be able to run this (and only this) particular application in elevated rights mode without knowing the password (I don't mind to enter and save it for this shortcut but I couldn't find such an option). And/or (both, ideally) the application to start up (elevated) after the user logs in.

I understand that this is going to be a security breach anyway, but there is hardly any choice.

I have tried adjusting the shortcut properties in many different way with no luck - it still asks for an administrator credentials.

I have also tried experimenting with Task Scheduler but the best result I reached is the application running invisibly with no GUI shown (in all the other set-ups the task was just failing to start).

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

PROBLEM: You're trying to run these computers like a responsible admin, by not giving user's admin rights, and some crappy company writes some crappier app that wants admin rights to run

SOLUTION: Shim it! Use the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

In computer programming, a shim (from shim) or shiv is a small library that transparently intercepts an API and changes the parameters passed, handles the operation itself, or redirects the operation elsewhere. They fix Compatibility issues for older applications which still rely on the older functionality. In such cases, the older API can still be supported by a thin compatibility layer on top of the newer code. Shims are used for running programs on different software platforms than they were developed for. (Source: Wikipedia)

I.E. a program that was written for XP and insists on running as an admin Look into shimming the application. It's like the Jedi Mind trick of IT. Shims will allow you to trick the program into thinking it has admin rights. Chances are all it really needs is just read/write to c:\program files\crappy company\crappy app or one single regkey.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2011/06/17/demystifying-shims-or-using-the-app-compat-toolkit-to-make-your-old-stuff-work-with-your-new-stuff.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd837644(v=ws.10).aspx

Answer 2

You can Schedule Task that monitors for log activity (watch EventLog for the Security ID of successful login) and start the application as a task and change the run task as to an administrator account. That'll ask you to enter the password once, then it'll save.

Answer 3

Create a shortcut on the non-admin account with the command cmd.exe /c "runas /savecred /user:<admin> "<file<args>>"" where is the administrator account, and <file<args>> is the file to run (with it's commands). Run the shortcut once and input the admin password. next time it is run, the password is not required. (If it is to run at user login, put shortcut in the folder shell:startup, and run it once.)

I know this answer is only 10 years late, so for any new viewers who are interested ;)