Win7, SuRun, and UAC?

I am migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7. On XP, I was using limited user accounts and surun to automagically elevate some applications (the PCs are shared with my kids and some of their games need admin privileges).

The issue I am having with Windows 7 is that there does not seem to be any way to automatically elevate an application using UAC unless the administrator password is provided. Specifically, I also set up a QNAP NAS and QNAP wants to run an iSCSI agent automatically at logon. In a Win7 standard account, I always get a UAC prompt to elevate the iSCSI agent.

So far I have tried setting up a rule in surun to automagically elevate the exe but that didn't work. I also tried installing the Application Compatibility Toolkit and installing a custom db with a "fix" to run as admin (also tried run as invoker), but that didn't work either. The only thing which appears to work is to use surun but turn UAC prompts off. I realize this also disables IE protected mode, but I also have a registered copy of sandboxie set to autosandbox the browsers.

My gripe with UAC is that I don't want some of my users (i.e. kids) to need the administrator password. It would have been nice if UAC was more like Unix sudo so the standard user's password could be used, or alternatively if there was a way to remember a response to the administrator password would be entered once.

Is there any other way to automatically elevate specific whitelisted programs in Windows 7 without being prompted for the administartor password each time?

 

You might look into Task Scheduler. Open it as administrator and Create Task..., Run with highest privileges, When running the task, use the following user account: your administrator account, Triggers: at log on from your user account(s), Actions: Start a program (select the one you want to start). Keep everything else as is.

This might work for you, not sure. The problem is it might only run as a process but you may not be able to access its interface.

 

Hmmm, that should have worked. Have you tried right clicking on the .exe in question and selecting "Start as Administrator" in order to create the rule?

 

When I start the iSCSI agent .exe manually I get the pop-up notification that surun is elevating it as expected. When I log in though, the UAC prompt comes up first so it looks like surun isn't getting a chance to elevate it before UAC kicks in. I have all of the surun execution hook options enabled.