DaveGray said:
1. When I right click any of the MS Office icons, none have the "Run as
administrator option". Maybe this has been disabled because
administrative
authority exposes risks of macros? But this is also true of Visual Studio
Hey Dave,
I believe this behaviour is normal and "by design". Okay - it's a vey
stoopid design!
but that is how it works.
The Start menu links to Office Applications are not actually shortcuts to
the apps' EXE files (unlike most Start Menu items). They are pointers to the
Application's object in the Shell Namespace (ie, like a GUID). You only get
the "Run as Administrator" option when you have an Executable file, such as
an EXE, or a shortcut to an EXE file. Because the Office items are pointers
to abstract objects not EXE files, there is no "Run As" option for them.
So, if you want to run Word as Administrator (for example), navigate to
WINWORD.EXE in Explorer, and right-click the EXE file. The "Run as
Administrator" option should now appear. Likewise for the other apps which
exhibit the problem: run the EXE.
I'm tempted to insert an extended commentary about Office, and its peculiar
ways, but ...
2. I want to move a folder in explorer. The current folder and the folder
I want to move it to are both directly under the C: directory. But I am
told
I need administrative authority to complete the task. However, windows
explorer doesn't offer a normal icon with a right-click popup window.
(Seems
like a clear bug to me.) Based on another post, however, I tried clicking
start and entering "explorer" in the start search. That brought up the
executeable. I tried right-clicking that and running as administrator,
but I
still get the same error and it refuses to move the folder. I also tried
copying the explorer executeable, pasting as a shortcut and checking "run
as
administrator" (under shortcut/advanced) without success.
Again, I think this is normal and "by design" ... albeit a busted,
brain-dead design!!! You cannot have Explorer running in more than one user
context, within each desktop session. It's just a limitation of Explorer;
for some reason buried deep in its architecture. So, you cannot "Run as
Administrator" another instance of Explorer; it just won't start. This
effectively prevents you from performing any file management operations
which require Administrative access, because Explorer also does not seem to
prompt for elevation in these cases.
I have found 3 workarounds, all with pros/cons:
1) run and administrative Command prompt, and perform file operations using
good ol' del, copy, mkdir, rd etc commands. Cheap and easy if you don't mind
command line.
2) use Fast User Switching to flip over to a concurrent Administrator
session, and perform the file operations from that instance of Explorer
which *is* running as Administrator); then FUS back to my normal user
session. Cheap and you get a GUI, but it is awkward and time consuming to
keep flipping FUS sessions too often.
3) run a 3rd party File Manager, so you can start it with "Run as
Administrator" while you are logged in to your normal user session and with
Explorer runs as Standard User. Easy and GUI-based, but you need to install
(and perhaps pay for) 3rd party software.
The file manager I use for option (3) is Directory Opus
(
http://www.gpsoft.com.au); but there are many other good products that fit
the bill.
Hope it helps,
