Running Password Auditor as a Different User
In this article we will review the steps required to run Specops Password Auditor as a different user than the one currently logged into Windows.
Newer Windows shortcuts have removed the ability to right-click ‘run as different user’ — this affects both shortcuts in the start menu and the shortcut (.lnk) files when viewed in Windows explorer. Even if you have enabled the ‘run as different user’ in the Start Menu via registry or group policy, the option will either be unavailable or nothing will happen when you click on it. This is a limitation in Windows for shortcuts created by MSI installers.
Running the Password Auditor exe as a different user is still possible, however it requires running the exe directly.
Via Windows Explorer
- Open a file explorer Windows
- Navigate to %programfiles%\Specopssoft\Specops Password Policy\SPA
- While holding the shift key down, right click on Spa.Presentation.Exe and choose ‘run as different user’
Via Command line
- Open a Windows command prompt via the Start Menu
- Run the following command to initiate Password Auditor:
runas /user:domain\username /netonly "%ProgramFiles%\Specopssoft\Specops Password Policy\Spa\Spa.Presentation.exe"