Possible to autostart program requiring elevated privilege in standard user account?

[Debbie23]

The basic question is, if you're an administrator & also use std user acct(s) in Vista, can a prgm requiring elevated privilege be made to start w/ Windows in the std user acct, W/O having the UAC prompt opening, requiring user to enter an admin PW at every restart?

I've read / learned more about using Task Scheduler than I ever wanted to know. Some articles / posts seem to say you can get elevated prgms to run in std users' accts(w/o UAC prompt) if you enter correct settings in Task Scheduler. I've seen other statements that "you can not cause an elevated privilege prgm to run in a std user acct, w/o the user entering an admin PW in the UAC prompt."

I'm dealing w/ SpeedFan temperature monitoring prgm, but it's a general question. I've tried every conceivable selection of settings in Task Scheduler (Vista x64). Best I can do is get it to start w/o prompt when logging in an admin acct. None of the many articles' steps I've tried stop the UAC prompt for SpeedFan when logging in a user acct.

This may / may not be a design of Vista / W7 to prevent administrators from giving certain rights to user accts, no matter if the admin thinks it's OK, or the admin & user are same person. To keep malware from exploiting the same ability. I'm not an expert in that area. Thanks.

 

[Mark56]

You need to add SpeedFan to Startup then it will run on all user accounts.

Click on Start button, select All Programs, then right click on Startup and select Open All Users and drag the SpeedFan icon into the box.

 

[Debbie23]

Thanks Mark, tried your suggestion & it does work. You're King of the Forum today.

Think I tried that before w/o success - the speedfan.exe file properties may have had "run this prgm as an administrator" checked. This time I made sure it wasn't checked & speedfan started in a std user acct w/o a UAC prompt.

Very strange - to schedule a task in Task Scheduler to auto start, that normally requires elevation - even in an admin acct - requires logging in under an admin acct, entering the admin PW again when saving the task. Then, it wouldn't start in a user acct w/o UAC prompt.

But simply dragging the icon/ file to the Start \ All Users group, entering admin PW once, makes it start in a user acct. The task scheduler goes to extreme security measures, but the Startup group method - not so much.

Other than "it's Windows," not sure why the diff in perceived security measures between the 2 methods?

 

[Mark56]

Can't give much of an answer to that question, that's just the way it is, but glad it worked for you.

 

[Debbie23]

Mark, what I discovered (as others have) is method of adding the start icon to All Users Startup group doesn't work for all prgms needing elevated privilege.

SpeedFan did work by that method. PC Wizard (well known system info / temp monitoring util) doesn't work by same method. After adding PC Wizard icon to startup & reboot in user acct, Windows just gave notice in tray "some prgms have been blocked." Then gives opportunity to start it manually entering admin PW in UAC.

I glanced over an MS article few days ago - about how there are several ways for a programmer to force a prgm to require running elevated. I'm not a programmer but understood the basics. Don't remember all the ways it mentioned now, but maybe that's why one runs by your method & another won't?

 

[Mark56]

You may well be correct. There is an item of software called Winpatrol which gives the user control of Startup programs and most software gives the installer the choice to run at startup during the installation of the software. There are possibly other ways to make a program run at startup without the UAC control appearing but this is not an area that I am very well informed on. It could be down to permission settings for each individual program.

If you do find out, it would be interesting to hear.

 

[DelJo63]

if there is a service that needs special privileges, then you can modify the
account that it runs under, eg Bluetooth Support Service

I couldn't get this to run until I saw a post that said it needed to be run from an Admin account;
enter the account and password, apply, stop and restart.

If you need a non-service to run
use notepad and enter runas /user:xxx path-to-your-program
and replace xxx with the account you want it to run in

save the file as startme.bat and move the file to the Startups folder for the user or to All Users

you will get a prompt for the password and you need to get it right in one try, but it works.

 

[Debbie23]

Thanks Mark - another prgm I've heard of (not used it) which helps setting up tasks in Task scheduler is "StartUp Program Unblocker" http://www.jimmah.com/vista/content.aspx?id=2
Task Scheduler won't solve all problems getting elevated privilege prgms to run automatically, but that prgm may be of some use.

Jobeard, when you said,

save the file as startme.bat and move the file to the Startups folder for the user or to All Users
you will get a prompt for the password and you need to get it right in one try, but it works.

Is this supposed to bypass getting a UAC prompt, or just get the prgm to start & bring up the UAC prompt automatically? I take it by your method, you'll still get a PW prompt each time it starts?

 

[DelJo63]

Is this supposed to bypass getting a UAC prompt, or just get the prgm to start & bring up the UAC prompt automatically? I take it by your method, you'll still get a PW prompt each time it starts?

yes, it will bypass the UAC because you are running as the login user and directly asking for the xxx users credentials - - perfectly legitimate.
Why? Because you're forced to give that users password, and yes, you get this EVERY time it is started.

You're effectively doing the very same thing as right-clicking on a shortcut and clicking on the Run As menu