If you run Windows XP in a Limited User Account then SuRun is going to be your new best friend. It’s easy to install and effortless to use. SuRun installs as a service and stores your admin password (encrypted with the Blowfish algorithm).
After it’s installed you have a context menu item named “Run as Administrator”. It’s similar to “Run As” but without entering the admin password every time, and SuRun can be trained to always run certain programs with admin privileges. The other important difference is SuRun elevates the current user’s privileges rather than running the program under the default Administrator account. This means if you install a program with SuRun, that program is installed in your account rather than the Administrator account.
SuRun is a very useful tool and should be part of every WinXP install.
Tags: LUA, security
Posted July 22nd, 2008 in WinXP | No Comments
It can be a chore to use a limited user account in Windows XP. It is an even bigger task to get other people to run as a limited user. In the past I recommended MakeMeAdmin as a way to take care of administrative tasks while still logged in to a limited user account but, DropMyRights seems to be a better way to go.
Instead of using a LUA, DropMyRights starts internet aware programs (or any other program) with limited rights, so It is possible to use an administrator account as your primary login and run email clients and web browsers as a limited user.
After downloading, run the msi installer and then copy DropMyRights.exe from where it was installed to somewhere in your path (C:\WINDOWS in my case) and then uninstall it (all the other files are source code and the EULA).
Right click on the shortcut for the application you want to run with limited rights and in the Target field add C:\WINDOWS\DropMyRights.exe.
So:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"
Is now:
C:\WINDOWS\DropMyRights.exe "C:\Program Files\Mozilla firefox\firefox.exe"
Edit:
There is a DropMyRights clone called StripMyRights. It does the same job with some modifications like passing command line arguments and the ability to be called from the registry.
Tags: LUA, security
Posted December 29th, 2007 in WinXP | No Comments