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Language: NT
Expertise: Beginner

Jul 9, 2000

Question:
Let's assume I am logged onto an NT Workstation as a normal user. Using one of your 10-Minute Solutions I managed to get the LogonUser API to log me in as the Administrator (i.e., returned True) with VB. Now I want to shell an EXE as the logged on Administrator and not myself. For example, this viruscan update, which requires Admin privileges:

c:\Temp\sdat4080.exe

How do I do this (I believe one solution is the CreateProcessAsUser API, but I don't know how to use it)?

Answer:
That is correct, one solution is to use CreateProcessAsUser, but it's much more complicated than just this one API call.

An easier method is to use the SU.exe utility (included in the NT Resource Kit, both NT 4.0 and W2K). You can run it in batch mode, or from a GUI by typing "SU." It allows you to run a process as any arbitrary user, as long as you know the userID and password for that user.