Windows’ built-in “Run-As” command allows you to launch a program as a different user account than the one currently active, However, runas.exe cannot be fully automated as it requires that the user typein the password for the alternate account. RunAsTool is portable freeware which allows standard users to run a specific program with administrator privileges without the need to enter the administrator password. This allows you to provide standard (non-admin) users with access to programs that require admin rights.

Some programs may not run correctly under a restricted account due to missing administrator rights. Therefore, many users are given administrator accounts, which makes the system more vulnerable to malware, viruses and other security risks. With RunAsTool, you can fix this. The login information for the application like username and password are read from an encrypted file.

RunAsTool v1.6 – What’s New – (Wednesday, July 1, 2026)

1. [ADDED] – Password security has been enhanced.
2. [ADDED] – Domain support.
3. [ADDED] – The method was modified to work in portable mode.
4. [ADDED] – verifying the hash before running.
5. [ADDED] – prompting for a password before running.
6. [ADDED] – Option to inherit variables.
7. [REMOVED] – Support for Import Cmd parameters.
8. [REMOVED] – Support for XP.
9. [ADDED] – A large portion of the program has been rewritten.

How to use

With RunAsTool there is no need to use a CMD prompt or any parameter in order to allow a standard user to run a program with admin rights. Just download, extract, and launch RunAsTool. Note: Problems may occur if RunAsTool is moved to the desktop and run from there. Both the administrator and users who will use the program must have access to the relevant folder. Therefore, running the program from a location to which you have access permissions will help prevent certain issues.

1) Administrators In standard user account:

Launch RunAsTool and choose an admin account (if there are more than one) and type in the associated admin password.

RunAsTool has two user interfaces (UI). One for administrator accounts and one for standard users. (Standard users aren’t able to use the admin UI). In the admin UI, you can easily drag and drop any program(s) into the UI in order to give it admin privileges. Standard users can also create application shortcuts.

To change the places of the icons in the interface, simply drag them on each other. RunAsTool has several useful options. For example, “Run with default rights”, “Run as limited user”, as well as the ability to show, hide, minimize, or maximize the launched window(s). As a security check, administrators can use “check the file size before run” feature. If a restricted user attempts to rename another program in order to run it with admin rights (a.k.a. “spoofing”), this option will prevent the user from doing so.

2) Administrators In Administrator user account:

Admins can easily add program(s), then right click it/them and create a shortcut on the standard user’s desktop.

The Options menu contains many useful features, such as restricting Limited Mode, creating application shortcuts on the desktop, and adding a DLL file to the Allowed Module list.

Administrators can also easily import and export program lists. Just click File–>Menu and choose Import or Export. This is useful to create a list once and use it again later.

Standard users have two options to use an allowed program(s) with admin privileges.

1) In the RunAsTool restricted UI, double-click any program to run it with admin rights.

2) If the administrator has allowed it, a standard user may click any program and create their own shortcuts, so that there is no need to launch RunAsTool every time. They can also use any shortcut which the admin has already created for them. RunAsTool also supports domains. You can configure your settings in your Active Directory system and access the tool via a shared folder on other Windows systems connected to the same domain.

Supported operating systems: Windows 11 , Windows 10 , Windows 8.1 ,Windows 8 , Windows 7 , Windows Vista

Supported languages: English, Turkish, German, French, Polish, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Greek, Japanese, Indonesian Bahasa, Persian, Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Hungarian, Slovenian, Czech, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese (BR), Dutch, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan, Lithuanian

File: RunAsTool_x64.exe │ Virustotal
MD5: 32f05522749f93b52436d2947912a911
SHA1: 7930d2ee7eeec17ec79aa5c579979975c1fe50f4

File: RunAsTool.exe │ Virustotal
MD5: 25a1099d786dc05d15ad221816828354
SHA1: d22394a7f3c4842ee418943a551783dadcd1b32d