NT Gatekeeper: Using the Su and NTsu Utilities for Runas Functionality

Does a utility exist that provides the Windows 2000 Runas functionality in Windows NT 4.0?

Win2K's Runas command lets a user start another logon session within the current session and switch between user security contexts. In NT 4.0, you can use the Switch User (Su) utility in the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit to provide Runas-like functionality. For details about this utility, see "Using Su to Switch Between User Identities," November 2001, http://www.secadministrator.com, InstantDoc ID 22790.

Quimeras Software's NTsu 3.1 utility also provides Runas functionality. NTsu lets you create secondary logon sessions from the Windows GUI and from the command line. As Figure 1 shows, NTsu is available from an object's context menu. You can use the runassrv.exe command to run NTsu from the command line. NTsu includes multilogon and multidesktop capabilities and lets you have more than one interactive logon session open simultaneously on your NT box. Each interactive session runs in its own desktop with a different user profile and security context. You can download a free test version of NTsu from the Quimeras Web site at http://www.quimeras.com.