My shortcut for a new instance of explorer.exe which ran as a different user: (C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:domain\admin /savecred "C:\Windows\explorer.exe /e, \\fileserver") suddenly stopped working.
Initially created a shortcut to open explorer as a different user using the following:
- I changed the appropriate registry key according to this answer
- I ran created the above shortcut and entered/saved my credentials on the first run
From there the shortcut opened the explorer using the saved credentials. It worked fine for about a week. Now, although I can see an new explorer.exe opening up in the task manager the explorer-tasks gets terminated right away.
Things I checked:
- The registry key is still the same (changed)
- Using a simpler shortcut and re-entering the password doesn't work either e.g.
C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:domain\admin "C:\Windows\explorer.exe" - Using "Shift"+"Right Click" and choosing "Run as different user" doesn't work either
- Trying to start any application (e.g. regedit) as a different user takes with the domain account takes an unusual long amount of time (approx. 30 seconds) but eventually it starts.
Any ideas what might be causing this? The only thing I can think of is that explorer runs into some kind of time out and the process just terminates. Otherwise I'm out of ideas where to start looking...
Update: Taking the DC out of the loop the link works again, seems my first hunch was right and it actually is some kind of timeout within the explorer task. Any information on this would be appreciated
Update2: After a few days it stopped working again, instead of troubleshooting it all over again I switched to a workaround (see my own answer).
