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
Let me know if this helped you! Leave a comment.

Finally, someone else in the industry that talks about logging in as a normal (limited) user!
While not as much of a pain, doing a fast “switch user” works as well.
Oh, and with Windows 7, when you run certain programs, they are still not in “admin” mode. You still need to use the right-click method…
I tried this on Vista SP2. Everything works fine; I’m prompted for the password and the “Programs and Features” window opens as you would expect. However it doesn’t appear to actually open it as the other user because when I try to uninstall a program it says I have to have admin rights to do this. I’ve tried it with both a local admin account and a domain admin account, same problem. Any ideas?
Vista and 7 should ask you to provide credentials if you don’t have them.
No need for any commands etc.