Runas Error: Unable to Acquire Password

visual-studio command-prompt windows-7-x64 runas
John Fischer picture John Fischer · May 18, 2010 · Viewed 30k times · Source

I'm trying to start visual studio 2010 from command prompt using 'RUNAS' so that I can run it as a different user. I ran the following command:

runas /profile /user:myPCName/SomeUserName "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

My problem is that the commandprompt says "Enter the password for myPCName/SomeUserName:" but I cannot enter the password. I just get the error "RUNAS ERROR: Unable to acquire user password"

I googled this for a while and the only answer I found was that I cannot see the password entered, but it is entered anyways, and that I must be typing the wrong password. I'm certain I'm not typing the wrong password.

Answer

Eelco L. picture Eelco L. · Apr 14, 2013

Actually, I had the same problem with W7 Enterprise (connected to a domain, switching to a locally defined admin user) without UAC elevation with the command:

runas /user:.\admin cmd.exe

It did prompt me for the password.

It also worked when I changed it explicitly to:

runas /user:%COMPUTERNAME%\admin cmd.exe

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