RunAs A different user when debugging in Visual Studio

Question

I\'m trying to run the program I\'m debugging as a different user. Now, this can be done by running the exe and attaching from Visual Studio, but this is cumbersome.

Answer 1

You can open your command prompt as the intended user:

• Shift + Right Click on Command Prompt icon on task bar.
• Select (Run as differnt user)

• You will be prompted with login and password

• Once CommandP Prompt starts you can double check which user you are running as by the command whoami.

• Now you can change directory to your project and run

dotnet run

• In Visual Studio hit Ctrl+Alt+P (Attach to Process - can also be found from Debug menu)

• Make sure "Show Processes from All users" is checked.
• Find the running process and attach debugger.

Answer 2

This works (I feel so idiotic):

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C runas /savecred /user:OtherUser DebugTarget.Exe

The above command will ask for your password everytime, so for less frustration, you can use /savecred. You get asked only once. (but works only for Home Edition and Starter, I think)

Answer 3

you can also use VSCommands 2010 to run as different user:

Answer 4

As mentioned in have debugger run application as different user (linked above), another extremely simple way to do this which doesn't require any more tools:

• Hold Shift + right-click to open a new instance of Visual Studio.

• Click "Run as different user"

• Enter credentials of the other user in the next pop-up window

• Open the same solution you are working with

Now when you debug the solution it will be with the other user's permissions.

Hint: if you are going to run multiple instances of Visual Studio, change the theme of it (like to "dark") so you can keep track of which one is which easily).

Answer 5

cmd.exe is located in different locations in different versions of Windows. To avoid needing the location of cmd.exe, you can use the command moogs wrote without calling "cmd.exe /C".

Here's an example that worked for me:

1. Open Command Prompt
2. Change directory to where your application's .exe file is located.
3. Execute the following command: runas /user:domain\username Application.exe

So the final step will look something like this in Command Prompt:

C:\Projects\MyProject\bin\Debug>runas /user:domain\username Application.exe

Note: the domain name was required in my situation.

Answer 6

I'm using Visual Studio 2015 and attempting to debug a website with different credentials.

(I'm currently testing a website on a development network that has a copy of the live active directory; I can "hijack" user accounts to test permissions in a safe way)

1. Begin debugging with your normal user, ensure you can get to http://localhost:8080 as normal etc
2. Give the other user "Full Control" access to your normal user's home directory, ie, C:\Users\Colin
3. Make the other user an administrator on your machine. Right click Computer > Manage > Add other user to Administrator group
4. Run Internet Explorer as the other user (Shift + Right Click Internet Explorer, Run as different user)
5. Go to your localhost URL in that IE window

Really convenient to do some quick testing. The Full Control access is probably overkill but I develop on an isolated network. If anyone adds notes about more specific settings I'll gladly edit this post in future.