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Is it possible to run the Windows Task Manager as another user, i.e. as an admin? Our users run with limited privileges, so it would be helpful if I could task manager as an administrator to kill a process if needed.

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4 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

From the Run prompt (Win+r) type the following and run it:

runas /user:Administrator taskmgr

Change "Administrator" to whatever user you want to run it as. You will then be prompted to enter the password of that user.

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Perfect, thanks –  Brenton Taylor Oct 13 '10 at 19:24
@Brenton You're very welcome =) –  BloodPhilia Oct 13 '10 at 19:25
I just tried using this to kill an instance of svchost.exe that appears to have hung and is taking up 50% CPU time (even with no applications running). I was able to open taskmgr as Administrator but upon attempting to kill the process I still received the error "Unabe to Terminate Process. The operation could not be completed. Access is denied." Anyone understand why? I seem to have no other option but to reboot. –  onestop Oct 28 '10 at 4:35
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The simplest way is to create a shortcut on the desktop. You can do this from the User account. In Explorer navigate to:


Copy and paste to the desktop as a link, or drag and drop whilst holding down .

To use it, right click, runas, and select the desired user/password.

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  1. Run command prompt as administrator in the right click menu on command prompt icon

  2. Type "taskmgr" in the command prompt

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Select the start menu , type taskmgr into the "search programs and file", task manager should come up in the results , now right click taskmgr and select "run as administrator". Works in windows 7.

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