Windows Command Line – How to Run a Command as Administrator on Windows 7

permissionsrunaswindowswindows 7

I need to run tscon.exe 0 /dest:console remotely = not manually on Windows7 as an administrator. More info here How to use tscon on Windows7?

I did my research and

  • OPTION 1 – runas

for user root (no password) on computer yogurt works

C:\>runas /user:yogurt\root cmd
Enter the password for yogurt\root:
Attempting to start cmd as user "yogurt\root" ...

for user administrator (I thought the the password is blank too) on computer yogurt doesn't work. I am asked for password, hit the enter and 

C:\>runas /user:yogurt\administrator cmd
Enter the password for yogurt\administrator:
Attempting to start cmd as user "yogurt\administrator" ...
RUNAS ERROR: Unable to run - cmd
1327: Logon failure: user account restriction. Possible reasons are blank passwo
rds not allowed, logon hour restrictions, or a policy restriction has been enforced.
  • OPTION 2 – setting properties of a batch file so it always runs as administrator. The 'privilege level' section is greyed out for me under Compatibility level. So I am not able to tick the check box Run this program as an administrator

Best Answer

You may find that the local Administrator account is in fact disabled. Take a look in the Local Users and Groups in Computer Management.

Regardless of that, I wouldn't recommend enabling the account, especially if it really does have a blank password.

Running a program 'as Administrator' (as in on the right-click menu) and doing a RunAs Administrator are not the same thing:

  • Running a program 'as Administrator' means that the program still runs under the context of your user account (i.e. the person invoking the program) but using a modified access token that includes membership of the Administrators group. A process started in this way would show as being owned by you in Task Manager.

  • Using RunAs with the Administrator account really does try to invoke the program under the Administrator account. A process started in this way would show as being owned by Administrator in the Task Manager.

EDIT: Although the above is relevant, I think the real problem might be to do with something called Session 0 Isolation which started with Windows Vista/Server 2008.

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