Logon and Logoff Savior

While working with Windows 2000 Professional, I discovered an incredible time-saver—the Run As command. If you don't give users local administrative rights, you'll benefit enormously from this command. In most situations, to install applications on a workstation, users have to log off so that the administrator can log on and install the application. But the Run As command lets administrators perform tasks (e.g., application installation and configuration) with the user still logged on.

You simply hold down the Shift key and right-click the shortcut (or icon) that you want to run. In the resulting pop-up window, input the username, password, and domain of the user you want to run the file as (e.g., your administrative account). When Windows finishes authenticating this information, the system then runs the application as if that person were logged on. This simple option has saved me multiple logons.

—Mark Catanese
[email protected]