Runas command

Updated: 11/12/2023 by Computer Hope
runas command

The runas command executes a program on another computer as yourself or as another user.

Availability

Runas is an external command that is available for the following Microsoft operating systems as runas.exe.

Runas syntax

Windows Vista and later syntax

RUNAS [ [/noprofile | /profile] [/env] [/savecred | /netonly] ]
/user:<UserName> program
RUNAS [ [/noprofile | /profile] [/env] [/savecred] ]
/smartcard [/user:<UserName>] program
RUNAS /trustlevel:<TrustLevel> program
/noprofile Specifies that the user's profile should not be loaded, which allows the application to load quickly, but can cause some applications to malfunction.
/profile The default setting that specifies that the user's profile should be loaded.
/env Use the current environment instead of the user's.
/netonly Use if the credentials specified are for remote access only.
/savecred Use credentials previously saved by the user.
/smartcard Use if the credentials are to be supplied from a smartcard.
/user <UserName> should be in form USER@DOMAIN or DOMAIN\USER
/showtrustlevels Displays the trust levels that can be used as arguments to /trustlevel.
/trustlevel <Level> should be one of the levels enumerated in /showtrustlevels.
program Command line for EXE. See below for examples.

Examples

> runas /noprofile /user:mymachine\administrator cmd
> runas /profile /env /user:mydomain\admin "mmc %windir%\system32\dsa.msc"
> runas /env /user:[email protected] "notepad \"my file.txt\""
Note

Enter a user's password only when prompted.

Note

The switch /profile is not compatible with /netonly.

Note

The switch /savecred is not compatible with /smartcard.

Windows XP and earlier syntax

RUNAS [/profile] [/env] [/netonly] /user:<UserName> program
/profile Use if the user's profile needs to be loaded.
/env Use the current environment instead of user's.
/netonly Use if the credentials specified are for remote access only.
/user <UserName> should be in form USER@DOMAIN or DOMAIN\USER.
program Command line for EXE. See below for examples.

Examples

> runas /profile /user:mymachine\administrator cmd
> runas /profile /env /user:mydomain\admin "mmc %windir%\system32\dsa.msc"
> runas /env /user:[email protected] "notepad \"my file.txt\""
Note

Enter user's password only when prompted.

Note

USER@DOMAIN is not compatible with /netonly.

Runas examples

See Microsoft's above examples for examples of this command.