Starting Internet Explorer as a different user
My machine is a 'server workstation' running Windows Server 2003 connected to a domain. I have created a local user called StandardUser.
I'm trying to run Internet Explorer 8 as this user by right-clicking on iexplore.exe in Windows Explorer but nothing happens. No processes containing the user's name appear in Task Manager (and it is set to show processes from all users). I've also checked that the Secondary Logon service is running although I'm not sure if there are any others required.
At the command line I've tried:
runas.exe /u:StandardUser "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
and get
Attempting to start C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe as user "COMPUTERNAME\StandardUser" ...
but then the command prompt just returns and still nothing.
Any ideas?
Update: Yes I am being asked for a password. Also I am running as local administrator on the machine because I'm a developer and need to run as local admin for Visual Studio, plus that's the way my company set the machine up.
It's to test how a web site behaves when logged in as a different user.
So actually you don't really need to run IE as a different user, you just need to log into the website as a different user?
(Instructions below were written looking at IE7 as I haven't got 8 handy here right now, but the relevant dialogs haven't changed significantly since IE5 as far as I can remember)
The easiest way to do this would be to just go into Internet Options -> Security. Then click on the icon for the zone that your website(s) are being detected as (it should show you which zone you're in on IE's status bar if you don't know) click Custom Level and scroll right to the bottom of the list.
You should see a section headed User Authentication -> Logon just select the Prompt for user name and password option, and you should then be prompted for which account you want to use the first time that you visit the website per session.
If I recall correctly Windows Vista and above simply won't start Internet Explorer for another user in the same session unless Explorer (the file manager) is not running. I don't know if this is true for Windows Server 2003 as well.
You can kill Explorer and then start IE as another user (for example from a command line) and then restart Explorer when IE is running for that user.
If you attempt to switch to another user (runas/user:StandardUser cmd) and then start IE you will likely get the following result:
Internet Explorer
The RUNAS command is not supported.
OK
But it does work if you kill the Explorer task in task manager (End Process for explorer.exe). I just tried it.
Steps:
Start cmd.exe (command prompt).
Run "runas/user:StandardUser cmd" in the command line window started in step 1.
End Process explorer.exe in Task Manager "Processes" tab.
Run "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" in the command line window started for StandardUser in step 2.
Start "Explorer" in "Applications" tab in Task Manager (via "New Task..." button).