How open Windows Explorer as different user in Windows 10?

Question

In Windows 10, the Windows Explorer shortcut on the taskbar has a different context menu than previous versions of Windows, and is missing the "Run as..." option (while holding the shift key).

How can I open Explorer as a different user?

Answer 1

There's probably a better way to do it but if you go to c:\windows, find explorer.exe, Shift+right click and the option "Run as different user" will be there.

Answer 2

None of the above answers worked for me but this one may help

This process will enable what you are after:

1.Take ownership of reg key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{CDCBCFCA-3CDC-436f-A4E2-0E02075250C2}, and grant yourself Full Control. This key controls how explorer is allowed to launch

2. Rename the subkey from "runas" to "_runas". If you receive an error doing this, then you probably didn't complete step one correctly.

Now try a runas on explorer.exe and it should run as your alternate user.

Answer 3

For me, the only use case for running explorer.exe as a different user is to get access to shared folders on another computer. So accessing paths like:

\\computerName\c$\myFolder

I would recommend skipping the whole "run as" approach for this use case and just browse to the path. If you don't have permissions explorer will ask for credentials. Windows 10 Access denied pop-up

BTW, for Windows 10 the explorer.exe program title is now "File Explorer".

Answer 4

You can also open command prompt and type:

runas /user:domain\user explorer.exe

It will then prompt for a password and then open.

Answer 5

If the alternate user is required for accessing network files, you can map a drive to that location using a different user.