Weekly quickTIP
Eliminating Run as Administrator
Poof! Just like that you can make it disappear with a simple registry editing.
- By Greg Shields
- 08/25/2008
I showed you how you can use some third-party tools as well as policies to enable a more powerful RunAs that works with more than just your own user token. OK, so I showed you how to make the tool run like it used to!
This time, I'll show you how to do just the reverse. For some environments, Vista's Run as Administrator link that is found in the context menu by right-clicking an EXE is concerning. Administrators don't want their non-administrator users to think that they can instantly gain omnipotent powers through a simple mouse click. For those situations with the non-administrators in your environment, you might just want that context menu item to simply go away.
It turns out there's a relatively easy fix to this interesting problem that is gained through a registry hack. To eliminate the menu item, open the registry editor and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Policies\Explorer
There create a new DWORD value titled HideRunAsVerb and set its value to 1.
If your environment is using Group Policy Preferences, doing this for all computers across your organization is a snap. If you're using old-style custom ADM files, it's a bit more complicated. In either case, once the machines have been rebooted or logged out, they'll see the change and no longer present the Run as Administrator link.
About the Author
Greg is an independent author, speaker, and IT consultant, as well as a Founding Partner with Concentrated Technology. With nearly 15 years in information technology, Greg has developed extensive experience in systems administration, engineering, and architecture specializing in Microsoft OS, remote application, and virtualization technologies. Greg is a Contributing Editor and columnist for TechNet Magazine, a former columnist for Redmond Magazine and Virtualization Review Magazine, and has authored or contributed to ten books and countless white papers and webcasts. His writing is regularly seen in publications like TechTarget online, e-books from Realtime Publishers, and the UK-based IT EXPERT Magazine. He has also produced numerous video training series for CBT Nuggets.