Run a Windows program with a user of another process

RunFromProcess v1.07 - Run a Windows program with a user of another process
Copyright (c) 2011 - 2021 Nir Sofer

Description

RunFromProcess is a command-line utility that allows you to run a program from another process that you choose.
The program that you run will be executed as a child of the specified process and it'll run with the same user and security context of the specified parent process.

Versions History

Version 1.07 - Fixed issue: RunFromProcess caused the parent process to crash if the process creation was very slow.
Version 1.06 - Fixed bug: RunFromProcess failed with 'Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.' if the process to run was enclosed with quotes.
Version 1.05 - Added admin parameter, which allows you to easily execute RunFromProcess as administrator.
Version 1.00 - First release.

Using RunFromProcess

RunFromProcess requires 2 command-line parameters:
RunFromProcess.exe [Parent Process Name/ID] [Process To Run]

The first parameter is the process name (for example: myprocess.exe) or process ID of the parent process that will run the program you need.
The second parameter is the full path filename of the program that you want to run. You can also specify command-line parameters for the specified program.

Optionally, you can specify 'nomsg' prefix before the 2 major parameters if you want that RunFromProcess won't display any error message.

Optionally, you can specify 'admin' prefix before all other parameters if you want to execute RunFromProcess as administrator.

Examples:
RunFromProcess.exe 761 c:\temp\myprog.exe
RunFromProcess.exe explorer.exe "c:\program files\abcd\mm.exe" 34 abc dd
RunFromProcess.exe nomsg explorer.exe "c:\software\soft.exe"
RunFromProcess.exe admin winlogon.exe "c:\software\soft.exe"

What you can do with this tool

Here's an example of what you can do with this tool:
when you run a program from the schedule service of Windows, the program will run under a SYSTEM account, for example:
at 18:00 c:\software\myprogram.exe

If you want to run the program with the current logged-on user, you can do it in this way:
at 18:00 c:\software\RunFromProcess.exe nomsg explorer.exe c:\software\myprogram.exe

If you want to run a program with SYSTEM user, you can do it in this way: (The admin parameter is needed to get admin rights on Windows Vista/7/8 when UAC is turned on)
RunFromProcess.exe admin winlogon.exe c:\windows\regedit.exe

If you execute the above command on Windows 7/Vista, RegEdit will be opened with a SYSTEM account, and you'll be able to see all secret Registry keys that are not available for any other user.

Using RunFromProcess on 64-bit system

If you want to run a program from a 64-bit process, you should use the x64 executable of RunFromProcess - RunFromProcess-x64.exe
In all other cases, you should use the 32-bit version of RunFromProcess (RunFromProcess.exe)

Security Restrictions

If you run the RunFromProcess utility without administrator privileges, you cannot execute a program from a process running with another user.

License

This utility is released as freeware. You are allowed to freely distribute this utility via floppy disk, CD-ROM, Internet, or in any other way, as long as you don't charge anything for this and you don't sell it as a part of commercial product. If you distribute this utility, you must include all files in the distribution package, without any modification !

Disclaimer

The software is provided "AS IS" without any warranty, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages due to loss of data or any other reason.

Feedback

If you have any problem, suggestion, comment, or you found a bug in my utility, you can send a message to nirsofer@yahoo.com

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