How to Run Control Panel as a Administrator (RUNAS)

Running your normal user account without administrator privileges is a great way to stop malware, or in a domain environment stopping employees from installing programs that could affect your network.
One draw back is having to logoff and login to your account if you need to make a small change. Wouldn’t it be easy if you could use RUNAS for control panel applets like system properties?

RUNAS command

• open the start menu
• In XP click Run,
  In Vista/7 type directly into the search box

runas /username:computername\Administrator "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL sysdm.cpl"

• Change username to your user login name
• Change computername to the computer name!
• In the above example sysdm.cpl is called which is the “system properties” window.

• Change sysdm.cpl to any of the following:

Accessibility – access.cpl
Add New Hardware – hdwwiz.cpl
Add/Remove Programs – appwiz.cpl
Date/Time Properties – timedate.cpl
Display Properties – desk.cpl
FindFast – findfast.cpl
Internet Properties – inetcpl.cpl
Joystick Properties – joy.cpl
Keyboard Properties – main.cpl
Local Users management – nusrmgr.cpl
Microsoft Exchange – mlcfg32.cpl
Microsoft Mail Post Office – wgpocpl.cpl
Modem Properties – telephon.cpl
Mouse Properties – main.cpl
Multimedia Properties – mmsys.cpl
Network Properties – Ncpa.cpl
Password Properties – password.cpl
Power Options – powercfg.cpl
Regional Settings – intl.cpl
Sound Properties – mmsys.cpl
System Properties – sysdm.cpl