Starting a PowerShell window as a Domain Admin
September 26th, 2016 by Charlie Russel and tagged Active Directory, PowerShell v5, RunAs, Start-Process
If you run as a limited user on your own desktop, as you should, it’s useful to keep a separate PowerShell window open as the Domain Administrator. I give that window a nice dark red background so I know instantly that I’m in a powerful window and to be appropriately careful. But how can I actually start a window as a different account, and using Run As Administrator? Ah, so glad you asked.
$AdminCred = Get-Credential -UserName "TreyResearch\domainadmin" `
-Message "Enter your password for the DomainAdmin account:"
Start-Process PowerShell.exe -Credential $AdminCred `
-ArgumentList "Start-Process PowerShell.exe -Verb RunAs" `
-NoNewWindow
Save this as “Start-myAdmin.ps1” or equivalent and it’s always available. The nice thing about using Start-Process with the NoNewWindow parameter is that it doesn’t leave a spare window open. Try it. It will make it just that much easier to run as a limited user with no administrative rights, even on your own workstation. And really, when you have the power to be a domain admin, you really, really, really shouldn’t run any other way.
Posted in Active Directory, Annoyances, Network Administration, PowerShell | Comments Off on Starting a PowerShell window as a Domain Admin