I've been struggling with running as a non-admin ever since I took the plunge. I, quite frankly, hate it. Lots of little things don't work right, and it's a pain to have to figure out what's wrong just because someone decided to write to the HKLM in the registry or drop data in \program files. Well today I figured out something that will save me a lot of pain. Running a command prompt as admin lets me do some stuff, but I've found that installs in particular tend to take a real login to work properly. Switching back and forth was getting old.
I'm running RC2 of Windows Server 2003. Well, I realized that I've got Terminal Services at my disposal - so I can actually log in twice! Just open up a remote connection to an administrative desktop and park it. I changed the colors on the admin desktop to give me a visual cue as to where I'm at. I still run most things in the regular user desktop, but when I need to elevate myself to admin, all I have to do to get there is ALT-TAB.
Ahhh......
Hmm.. That IS an option. But I am wondering how realistic that is for a majority of people who are doing development for WS2003. They will not be running WS2003 on their desktop but are more likely to have XP Pro, where this option is not available.
ReplyDeleteGreat point, so obvious I use Term Services all the time for access to other machines. Windows XP supplies the quick Switch User function.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know WS2003 isn't for everyone - but it's for me :)
ReplyDeleteLook up 'Run as...'
ReplyDeleteDude, I'm totally familiar with "Run As". It's described in the original article by Keith. I use it all the time. But as I said in the posting, IME some things just require a full, interactive administrative login.
ReplyDelete