If you want a VBScript to run a program using RunAs DOS command, go straight to the bottom of the blog. If you want to read the build-up for the final product, keep reading.

Time to time I came across I wanted to run a script or program as administrative privileges. The few needs are like,

• Install a program or do something on client machines via logon script
• Run a program using different account

Duh! RunAs command. Sure RunAs command works, but using VBScript??? You can find a VBScript example for running a program using RunAs command like below,

set oShell= Wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

oShell.Run "runas /user:domainaccount ""Notepad.exe""", 2      ‘Note 2 means minimized Window
WScript.Sleep 100

oShell.Sendkeys "password~"    ‘Note the ~ character in the end. ~ means ENTER

Wscript.Quit

What’s wrong with the above script? After all it should work as expected. You know who the villain for above script. Guess…..OK. It’s attention hungry programs. When you run this script, it might send the password keys to wrong window,  while you running along with zillion programs in foreground and background. So what to do?

I rewrite the script few times and tested the script running along many programs. (Take ‘many programs’ as WinDVD, IE, Downloading a file in IE, Notepad, Command prompt and Active Directory Users and Computers). The final product is below,

Dim oShell
set oShell= Wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

oShell.Run "runas /user:domainuser ""program.exe""",2     ‘Note 2 means minimized Window
WScript.Sleep 100

For i = 0 to 10
      oShell.Popup "Opening Program.exe…",3,"Administrator",0+64  
      ‘3 means 3 seconds, 0+64 means OK button with Information Icon
     

      Activated = oShell.AppActivate ("runas")
      WScript.Sleep 10

      If Activated = 0 Then
             oShell.Sendkeys "password~"           ‘Note the ~ in the End..~ means ENTER
             Exit For
      End If
Next

Wscript.Quit

Few Tips and Tricks:

1. If you want to run a VBScript in runas, try running RunAs /user:domainuser "WScript script1.vbs"
• RunAs command run only executable files, so *.VBS or *.JS will not run
2. If you want to run an *.MSC file, try running RunAs /user:domainuser "MMC test.msc"
3. If you want tor run an Non-Executable file (other than above), try creating a DOS batch file and run the batch file using RunAs
4. It’s not really safe to leave the VBScript file command location. Passwords are visible to any eyes. Try Encoding the VBScript using VBScript Encoder (can be downloaded from Microsoft).

Alternatives

For non-believer of my above VBScript sample, here is the nice list of alternatives.

http://www.commandline.co.uk/sanur_unsupported/index3.html

http://www.wingnutsoftware.com/erunas.html

http://www.shareup.com/RunAs_Professional-download-12339.html